Photo courtesy of Hoover Service Club
The Hoover Service Club on Thursday, May 8, 2025, gave out $57,000 in scholarships and awards to students from Hoover and Spain Park high schools and recognized six middle school students for outstanding citizenship or academic performance.
The Hoover Service Club on Thursday gave out $57,000 in scholarships to students from Hoover and Spain Park high schools and honored six middle school students for exemplary academic performance and citizenship.
The scholarship winners were chosen based on their academic records, school activities, community service and leadership.
This year’s scholarship recipients from Hoover High and their intended universities are:
- Stella Donnelly, University of Alabama
- Zynmphony Ortego, Troy University
- Reagan Posey, University of Alabama
- Kelsea Schafer, University of Alabama
- Caroline Simmons, Samford University
The scholarship recipients from Spain Park are:
- Jessica Browder, Mississippi State University
- Palmer Cerniglia, Auburn University
- Trinity Daniels, University of Alabama
- Johnathan Decker, American University
- Geraldine Flores, University of Alabama
- Noah Hendrix, Auburn University
COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARDS
The Service Club also gave out awards to two seniors for outstanding community service.
Madeleine Daspit, a senior at Hoover High, won the Margaret Alford Community Service Award. Daspit logged 476 hours of community service during her high school career.
She has volunteered at the McWane Center for Girls STEM Day and is a founding member of the SWENext (Society of Women Engineers) Club at Hoover and member of the Hoover Belles service organization. She also volunteered to help at track meets, has been a volunteer volleyball coach for the girls recreational league and served four years on the audio/visual team at her church.
Raina Valliani, a senior at Spain Park, won the Ardith McMicken Community Service Award. Valliani has logged 790 hours of community service during her high school career.
She also was in the Hoover Belles and volunteered at the McWane Center and Birmingham Zoo. She has been a teaching assistant and resource manager at her religious center while also serving as the youth council president. She has been active in the Key Club at Spain Park and within the state organization for high school key clubs.
Before her freshman year, she started Alabama’s first chapter of Letters for Rose, an international organization that sends letters and drawings to senior citizens. A chapter at Spain Park High soon followed, and by her senior year, more than 120 members of the chapter had written 1,000 letters to senior citizens in the community.
The Service Club also on Thursday recognized one student from each of Hoover’s three middle schools for outstanding citizenship and one student from each middle school for outstanding academics.
The middle school citizenship awards went to Caiden Roughton of Berry Middle, Lucy Helland of Bumpus Middle and Luke Hertz of Simmons Middle. The academic performance awards went to Gage Winfield of Berry, Ana Landois of Bumpus and Colin Morrell of Simmons.
Editor's note: This story was updated to correct the total amount of scholarships given ($57,000) and the spelling of the last name of the student who received the Ardith McMicken Community Service Award. It was Raina Valliani. Incorrect information had been supplied to the Hoover Sun initially.
