Jared Johnson (DeKalb High School) and Renny Tolentino (St. Brendan High School) are the winners of the 1st Annual Kishwaukee College Department of Athletics "Champions in the Community" community service award. The award is based on the total number of hours that each athlete served in the "Champions in the Community" service platform in which all Kishwaukee College athletes participate.
The "Champions in the Community" award comes with a $500 scholarship that the students can use to help support their future educational pursuits. The scholarship was generously sponsored by Jude Wilbers and Brian Wynn of Thrivent Financial in DeKalb. Thrivent Financial, Wynn and Wilbers, also provided support for some of the Kougar sponsored events such as the "Champions Read" program at Malta Elementary.
Johnson and Tolentino, both sophomore baseball players and All-Arrowhead Conference performers tied for the honor of having worked the most hours. The Kougar baseball team not only won the Arrowhead Conference Championship, but also won the team "Champions in the Community" award for the 2015-16 season.
For the 2015-16 school year, Johnson and Tolentino, along with the rest of the Kishwaukee Kougar baseball team, logged over 375 hours of volunteer work in the surrounding communities by working with the following organizations and at the following events:
WLBK's Freezing for Food event for the Salvation Army
Feed My Starving Children
Kishwaukee Valley YMCA Halloween Event
"Champions Read" Program- Malta Elementary School
The Kishwaukee College Kougar athletes poured over 1100 hours into the surrounding community during the 2015-16 school year via their "Champions in the Community" service platform.