After social distancing rules threw a monkey wrench into Kingfisher County Republican Women’s plans for its annual scholarship banquet, the club decided to pivot to the next best thing –a video awards presentation streamed on social media.

“Our members have financially supported our Marie Cooper Memorial Scholarship for seven years and look forward to meeting the three finalists and hearing them read their essays,” committee chair Christine Reid said.

“Plus, we ask so much of our applicants, we thought the finalists deserved more than paper recognition.”

Finalists Sarah Sanders (who ultimately won the $1,000 award) and her fellow finalists Jayden Stitt and Anna Galupe, all of Kingfisher High School, rose to the occasion by providing video versions of their essays.

The final video, which has been posted on Facebook, includes a brief history of the Marie Cooper Memorial Scholarship, and its namesake, who was an longtime local Republican fundraiser and campaigner, as well as an enthusiastic supporter of young people and their involvement in the political process.

The video also includes an introduction of each of the finalists by Reid and her fellow members of the scholarship committee, Lacey Dunivin and Tiffany Wagner.

After Sanders is announced as the winner, the video concludes with congratulations to her from State Rep. Mike Sanders and State Sen. Darcy Jech.

Sanders is the daughter of Michael and Lisa Sanders. With a GPA of 4.0 and an ACT score of 33, she is currently ranked first out of her class of 125 students.

Sanders is a member of National and Oklahoma Honor Society and Phi Theta Kappa college honor society.

At KHS, Sanders has been named Student of the Month in each of the last four years, was selected as a Girl’s State Delegate and was included in Duke University’s prestigious Talent Identification Program.

She has played trombone in the Pride of Kingfisher band since 2012 and is band council president. She also is a high school staff photographer and is active in drama productions, where she’s served as props manager and assistant director.

Anna Gallupe is the daughter of Grant and Connie LaFave-Gallupe.

She is a member of Business Professionals of America, serving as a fall leadership conference delegate and executive committee delegate.

She is a KHS student council member and state conference delegate and also a three-year delegate at the Oklahoma Athletic Training Clinic. She served as trainer for the high school baseball team and head trainer for the football team.

She was named student of the month and 2019 football homecoming queen and also is active in drama.

In addition to her diploma from KHS, Gallupe also will earn a certificate in desktop publishing and graphic design from Chisholm Trail Technology Center, where she was recently named a student of the quarter.

Stitt is the son of J.J. and Bonnie Stitt. He has completed the pre-engineering program at Chisholm Trail Technology Center and is in the process of completing the computer repair and networking program as well.

Stitt is a member of the National Technical Honor Society and has been named a Student of the Quarter at CTTC.