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Cassie Monk
ELKINS -- Elkins High School graduate Cassie Monk has been announced as the third recipient of the annual Austen Moore Scholarship.
Monk is a four-year varsity cheerleader for EHS, where she is a member of both the National and Spanish Honor Societies, a four-year honor roll student, and ranked in the top 10% in her class. She is also a member of Landmark Baptist Church and volunteers in community cleanups and events.
Monk was nominated for the award by her fellow Elkins High School student Sydney Cooper.
"When it comes to Cassie, she allows no one to be a stranger; she speaks to everyone she meets, providing a sense of welcome all around," Cooper writes in her nominating letter. "I've witnessed her reaching out to new students in the school, asking them how school is going for them as she talks to them in the friendliest manner that makes it seem like she has known them for all her life. Students who struggle to connect socially that are labeled as "misfits" find the ability to be able to speak to her easily.
"She's always willing to share the lunch table with those who need a place to sit, invite a person without a friend in gym class to play a game, give you a ride home from school, explain how to do a homework problem to someone struggling, and anything in-between; the list could go on forever as her kind acts occur frequently," Cooper writes. "Rarely do you ever find a person who doesn't pay attention to the concept of popularity; to Cassie, it doesn't matter if you have 2,000 followers or 10 followers on social media as she treats you with the same high level of respect she has for everyone."
Austen Wesley Moore, who passed away at age 27, was an Elkins native and 2009 graduate of Elkins High School who is said to have exemplified kindness, care and compassion.
In his honor, the Austen Moore Kindness Scholarship was created. The EHS student selected for the scholarship does not need the highest GPA or best grades, but must be a beacon of kindness to students and the Elkins community.
"There are scholarships for academic excellence," Moore's mother, Debbie Fragale, said. "Universities spend millions of dollars every year to attract high-caliber athletes. Those are achievements worthy of distinction, and in their unique ways they benefit us all. But there's another quality that nowadays seems to get short shrift, one that carries its own countless rewards, goodness.
"That desired and much-needed trait, one that requires an intimate connection between two people, is at the heart of Austen Moore Kindness Scholarship. It's awarded every year to honor the life of Austen and to perpetuate the ideas of goodwill, benevolence and friendship that he exemplified during his life," she said.