{"id":22296,"date":"2025-05-13T22:02:19","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T04:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-golf-tournament-supports-13-students-with-scholarships\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:13:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:13:01","slug":"cortez-golf-tournament-supports-13-students-with-scholarships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-golf-tournament-supports-13-students-with-scholarships\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez golf tournament supports 13 students with scholarships"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"This
This year, 13 students Montezuma County students were awarded $1,000 scholarships, thanks to an event sponsored by the Four Corners Board of Realtors. (From left: Keira LaRose, Cruz Hernandez, Maddisyn Morris, Emily Howell, Randi Lewis, Vincent Lopez III, Spencer Eschallier, Lucas Figueroa, Coralea Wright. Not pictured: Emily Carver, Andres Moreno, RIley Cannon, Samantha Abate.)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

What started 37 years ago as a senior golf tournament has grown into a scholarship program that helps Montezuma County students pursue a higher education.<\/p>\n

When it began in 1988, about 45 golfers came out to play and one student was awarded a modest prize of $250.<\/p>\n

This year, the Dean Hanson Memorial Golf Tournament raised enough money to award 13 students $1,000 scholarships.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kids really, really appreciate it,\u201d said Denise Unrein, association executive director of the Four Corners Board of Realtors, which sponsored the event. \u201cWe get some really good kids through here.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a lunch of spaghetti and salad at the Elks Club in Cortez on May 12, students took turns accepting their awards and talking about their next steps.<\/p>\n

One plans to go to the University of Colorado Boulder to study theater. One will go to Lakewood\u2019s Colorado Christian University, and another to Utah State University to study aviation management. One will pursue marine biology in Florida and yet another is off to the University of Wyoming for prelaw courses.<\/p>\n

Breezy Obletz-Kingery, board president of the Four Corners Board of Realtors, explained how the September golf tournament raises the scholarship money each year. Local businesses, the community and Realtors sponsor the golf holes, said Obletz-Kingery, and that money bolsters the scholarship fund.<\/p>\n

After students apply, there\u2019s a sort of rubric they follow to choose scholarship winners. Things like financial need, grades, community involvement and extracurricular activities, like sports, are all considered.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great, it makes you feel good,\u201d Unrein said. \u201cThey so appreciate it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the event wrapped up, members of the Four Corners Board of Realtors drew names from a hat, awarding more prizes of gift cards, tote bags and even a leather briefcase.<\/p>\n

\u201cEnjoy college,\u201d said Carol Click, the scholarship\u2019s committee chair. \u201cAnd remember, you can apply for the scholarship next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any student from Montezuma or Dolores county can apply multiple times to ease the financial burden of college, even if they\u2019re in college now.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll right, we better get you guys back to school, I guess,\u201d said Click, concluding the event.<\/p>\n

The 13 students who received 2025 Dean Hanson Memorial Scholarships were:<\/p>\n

Cruz Hernandez, Montezuma-Cortez High School, University of Colorado Boulder Emily Howell, Montezuma-Cortez, TBAEmily Carver, Montezuma-Cortez, TBAMaddisyn Morris, Montezuma-Cortez, TBACoralea Wright, Dolores High School, TBAKeira LaRose, Dolores, University of San DiegoSamantha Abate, Dolores, Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, FloridaRandi Lewis, Mancos High School, University of Wyoming Spencer Eschallier, Mancos, University of Colorado BoulderLucas Figueroa, Mancos, Utah State UniversityVincent Lopez III, home school, New Mexico College of BusinessAndres Moreno, nontraditional, Mancos, TBA Riley Cannon, nontraditional, Mancos, TBA<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Montezuma County students will put awards toward college<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-22296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22296"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77653,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22296\/revisions\/77653"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22296"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}