CHAMPION Two TCTC students win cars for honor roll, perfect attendance

The number of students in the attendance raffle increased from four to 44 in two years.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
CHAMPION -- Good attendance and good grades have paid off for two students at Trumbull Career and Technical Center.
The school conducted raffles among students who achieved perfect attendance and those who earned a place on the honor roll.
The student who won the perfect attendance raffle, Erin Williams, a 2003 graduate from Joseph Badger High School, received a 1996 Pontiac Sunfire from Stupka Motors of Hermitage, Pa.
Becky Taylor from Mathews High School, who will begin her senior year next month, won the raffle for honor roll students and received an early 1990s Chevrolet Lumina from Pace Pontiac of Niles. She studies job training at TCTC.
Becky doesn't have a driver's license yet, so her father drove it home from the school, but she's looking forward to getting her license so she can get her award on the road.
Larry Crawford, TCTC academic supervisor, wrote letters to area car dealerships requesting the donations.
It was the second year for the perfect attendance award and the first year for the honor roll car.
Gets message across
"Two years ago, we had four kids in the raffle for perfect attendance," Crawford said. "We had 44 this year."
There's also been a significant increase in the number of people on the honor roll, he said.
"It gave kids something to talk about that was positive that connected with school," Crawford said.
When Crawford gets a call from an employer inquiring about a student, the employer asks more often about attendance than about grades.
"Attendance is an expectation in the work world that kids needs to understand," he said. "You can't learn if you're not in school, and you can't perform if you're not in school."