The Charitable Italian American Organization of Lima awarded 14, $1,000 scholarships at a banquet last month. This year’s recipients were Caleb Austin, Rachel Ballinger, Paul Blasiman, Eli Bourassa, Lauren Bull, Jaclyn Diglio, Gabrelle Dulebohn, Abigail Durst, Gage Goecke, Adrian Johnson, Karenna Langhals, Taylor Miller, Thomas Williams and Addison Wireman.

Italian heritage is not a requirement for CIAO’s scholarships or its charitable giving. To qualify, students must be a graduating senior from a school in or a resident of Allen County and hold a minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA, submit official transcripts and ACT or SAT scores, gather two letters of recommendation from a school faculty member and a member of the community, present a written essay and offer a list of achievements, awards, community service, employment, clubs and extracurricular activities.