The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON ­— Grace Trump and Joshua Reser were chosen as the recipients of the 2024 P.E.O. Citizenship Award. This award is given to the outstanding young man and woman in Dayton High School’s senior class, judged on qualities of character, scholarship and activities. Especially emphasized are honesty, courtesy, amiability, morality and punctuality-the marks of a good citizen. Recipients are selected by the high school faculty, the associated student body officers and the P. E. O. Awards Committee.

P.E.O. is a philanthropic educational organization which supports six philanthropies.

This includes ownership of Cottey College, a woman’s college in Nevada, Missouri, and five programs that provide higher educational assistance for women through scholarships, grants, awards and loans.

Founded in 1869 at low Wesleyan University, P.E.O. is one of the oldest women’s organizations in North America and has grown to almost 6,000 local chapters with more than 225,000 members in the United States and Canada. The Dayton chapter was organized in 1925.

The award consists of a certificate and a $300 check to be presented at graduation. The P.E.O. Citizenship Award was first presented in 1930 and has continued for 94 years.