On their way

About two months after a 5K race on the sands of Siesta Key, nine Riverview High School students gathered recently at the Hyatt Regency in Sarasota to receive the eighth annual Andrew Monroe Memorial Scholarships. 

In total, $7,500 was doled out to the students, who are all soccer players like the late Monroe.

The RHS soccer player died in 2011 in a car crash and after his death, Monroe's family founded a scholarship fund in his name at his high school. 

The winners were: Madelyn Halperin, Allison Kukanza, Caroline Reilly, Christie Gianoplus, Samantha Bickel, Barbara Anne Harper, Joseph St. Onge, Tyler Hockett and Nicholas Coelho. 

Students had to write an essay explaining how they emulated the positive traits that defined Monroe, said his mother, Stacey Monroe.