Rotary Top Five Banquet Honors SCMS, SCHS Students

Stephens County honors its Top Five.

The Toccoa Rotary Club held the annual Top Five Reception and Banquet Tuesday at Stephens County High School.

Each year, the banquet honors the top five percent of the graduating class at Stephens County High School.

It also honors the top five students in Grades Six through Eleven.

Toccoa Rotary Club President the Very Reverend Mary Demmler said that the students should be very proud of their accomplishments and realize that their futures are full of potential.

However, she said the students should not let anyone else define for themselves what success means.

“Along the way, plenty of people will tell you, ‘You should be or why don’t you or even why can’t you?’,” said the Very Rev. Demmler. “You will even hear a voice creep inside your mind asking ‘Should I be doing that?’ and ‘Maybe I am doing the wrong thing?’ Instead, what I hope for you is that you will learn to hear a stronger voice. One that comes within and will guide you truthfully to become the best version of yourself possible.”

The Very Reverend Demmler said that voice will remind students where their gifts lie and where they do not.

“It will help you reject pressures that would bend you to their desires and it will strengthen you to pursue success on your own terms,” she said. “Listen to this voice. It will lead you to become people of integrity and true success, the kind of success that helps to change the world, not by solving the meaning of life or curing cancer, though I would love to learn if you figure that out. It is the power to change the world in small acts of justice and truth.”

She went on to say that Rotarians have a four-way test that helps them hold true to that.

“Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned?” asked the Very Rev. Demmler, citing the Rotary Four-way Test. “Live by these questions and you will experience true success, one that leads not only to better communities, but to the best version of you.”

This year’s Top Five seniors at Stephens County High School are, in alphabetical order, Dustin Jordan Bivins, Ally Childs Brock, Kenneth Dennis Brock, Kristoffer Michael Clark, Grant Walker Dawson, Emma Marie Epps, James Richard Hoobler, Marissa Claire Ivester, Karolyn Jean Knickerbocker, Jaron Tyler Lehman, and Abbie Elizabeth Wood.

Each of the Top Five seniors does receive scholarship money from the Toccoa Rotary Club.