Every year, on the last Thursday in February, the state Boys and Girls Club Youth of the Year are crowned. It’s an honor that includes scholarship money and much more.
Thursday's competition, according to the judges, may have been the most difficult ever.
Five finalists from clubs from all around the state delivered their speeches to a group of local business leaders and elected officials at the Zions Bank tower in downtown Boise.
Those speeches included stories of being adopted from earthquake-ravaged Haiti to dealing with unimaginable struggles at home to being bullied - and all of them finding a path and a light through their local Boys and Girls Club.
The winners:
- Ivan Lomeli, who's headed to Cornell in the Ivy league from humble beginnings raised by a single mom in Nampa.
- And the Idaho Military Youth of the Year, from the Mountain Home Air Force Base club: Jordyn Funk.
The Micron Foundation, along with Disney and Toyota, donated $7,500 in scholarship money for the two state winners. The runners-up received $1,000 each.
Runners-up were:
- Steeve Biondolillo from the Boys and Girls Clubs of Ada County
- Levi Anderson from the Boys and Girls Clubs of Kootenai County
- Arianna Bounds from the Boys and Girls Clubs of The Lewis Clark Valley
- Jordyn Quesnell from the Boys and Girls Clubs of Magic Valley