Good Samaritan
The Good Samaritan Awards and Scholarship
Ryan Nece hosted the second annual Good Samaritan Awards Program Year-End Banquet and Scholarship Announcement on Thursday, June 4, 2009 at the Renaissance Tampa Hotel. Throughout the 2008-09 school year, high school students from Hillsborough and Pinellas County schools were selected as Good Samaritans of the Month based on their academic achievements and contributions to community service. All monthly winners were invited to the banquet where one student from each school district was honored with a college scholarship.
Buccaneers safety Will Allen was on hand to deliver the keynote address at the banquet. Will posed for photos and signed autographs for all the Good Samaritan winners at the conclusion of the banquet.
Matthew Bloom (second from left) from Lakewood High School was this year’s Pinellas County scholarship recipient. Matthew is significantly involved in SWAT, or Students Working Against Tobacco. For three years, he has been a core member of Pinellas Co. SWAT youth who have organized anti-tobacco meetings, events, presentations and commercials throughout Florida . The group has met with Florida legislators, attended leadership trainings at hospice and spoken to middle school students about the harmful effects of tobacco. Last year, Matthew started a SWAT club at his school that has now grown to over 35 members who meet once a month and organize one anti-tobacco related activity each month.
In addition to his work with SWAT, Matthew also volunteers for the Pinellas County Health Department and the American Lung Association. He also enjoys sharing his passion for music with residents at Menorah Manor Nursing Home and Toby Weinman Assisted Living Facility.
A member of the National Honor Society and a College Board AP Scholar with Honor, Matthew plans to attend the University of Florida as a biology or pre-med major.
Brandon Proctor (third from left), a junior at Gaither High School, was the scholarship recipient from Hillsborough County. Last summer, Brandon spent five weeks in West Africa  with the International Mission Board-Southern Baptist Convention. During those five weeks, he lived and worked among the Wala people, ministering, and helping the people plow, plant seeds and farm. Living with no electricity, no clean running water and no way of communicating with the native people, Brandon was left humbled and forever changed by the experience.
Back at home, Brandon served the past school year as president of the Student Advisory Committee, vice president of PTSA Student Ambassadors, and vice president of Humanitarian Outreach and Awareness Project. He also found time to organize two blood drives over the summer, as well as a blood drive at the beginning of this past school year.
A member of the Citizens Advisory Committee for the Hillsborough County School Board, Brandon is completing another mission trip to West Africa this summer.
The Ryan Nece Foundation would like to congratulate all of this year’s Good Samaritans!
