Elks honor pair for academic achievements
Sandpoint Elks Lodge No. 1376 has announced students of the month for October for the Lake Pend Oreille School District.
To be selected as an Elks student of the month, students must meet guidelines for character, citizenship, service, scholarship and leadership.
The Elks actively seek to reward youth through many different programs including scholarship awards, Hoop Shoot tournaments, dictionary donations to third graders, drug awareness programs and many other activities and programs.
Sandpoint Elks Lodge award thousands of dollars in scholarships and local students also received an additional money in state and national Elk scholarships. The Elks are the third largest awarder of scholarships in the county and several students have received large scholarships from the state and national level of Elks.
Those honored from Sandpoint High School are Molly Balison and Christopher Koch.
Molly Balison
A senior at Sandpoint High School, Molly Balison is the daughter of Gene and Melissa Balison.
A hard-working student, Balison has maintained an unweighted GPA of 4.0 throughout her high school career. Outside of school, she enjoys dancing, which she has done for about six years, and attends a couple of youth groups on a weekly basis. She has had a substantial amount of volunteer experience through churches in the community and being a member of the National Honors Society.
She hopes to attend Boise Bible College and Boise State where she will study journalism or psychology.
Christopher Koch
A senior at Sandpoint High School, Koch is the son of Tracey and Paul Koch.
Chris Koch is described by those who know him as a person who excels both in school and out of school.
In school, he is ranked 11th in his class and has a 4.2 GPA. Outside of school he is part of a band that plays at restaurants around town. Chris also does pottery and gives his crafts away as gifts.
After high school Chris plans to attend the University of Canada and pursue a degree in engineering. After getting this degree he plans to enroll in the Peace Corps and help people abroad.
