Minnesota Municipal Utilities Association

MMUA Scholarship Contest Winners Named

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MMUA Scholarship Contest Winners Named

May 6, 2016

The MMUA Tom Bovitz Memorial Scholarship Award winners were selected Wednesday, May 4.  The top four essays in the 17th annual contest are:

  1. Ruby Irene Redekopp, Hutchinson
  2. Katie Desautels, Alexandria
  3. Abby Anderson, Rochester
  4. Abigail Jo Madson

“It was a close contest, with 12 of the 26 entries receiving votes,” said MMUA Associate Executive Director Steve Downer. “Ruby Redekopp’s essay, however, received three first place votes to clinch the competition.”

The first place scholarship carries an award of $2,000, second place $1,500, third place $1,000 and fourth place $500.

The contest was created as a public relations tool to increase the awareness of public power and create goodwill in the community for the local municipally-owned utility.  Essay theme was “Municipal Utilities: Good for All of Us.” 

The essays were initially submitted to the governing body of the local utility.  Winners of the local contests were then entered into the statewide contest.  Judges included six MMUA member utility representatives and one MMUA staff member. Judges ranked their top four essays, point values were assigned and winners selected.

The award is named in honor of the late Tom Bovitz, a firm believer in the value of education, who was a former general manager of Hibbing Public Utilities and MMUA president. MMUA, headquartered in Plymouth, represents the interests of the state’s 125 municipally-owned electric and 33 municipally-owned gas utilities.

MMUA thanks all its members who forwarded contest materials to their local schools and all contest entrants.

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