The Rotary Club Of Alton-Godfrey Honors March 2022 Students Of The Month

ALTON/GODFREY - Abigail Hasty of Alton High School and Elizabeth Guenther of Marquette Catholic High School were honored as Students of the Month for March at the regular meeting of the Rotary Club of Alton-Godfrey at Gentelin’s Restaurant.

Abigail Hasty, a senior at Alton High School, is the daughter of Jeanna and Michael Hasty. During her four years at AHS, she made high honor roll and received the St. Louis Post Dispatch “A” Student designation every year. She was selected as an Illinois State Scholar during her senior year. Abbie is a member of multiple Honor Societies, including The National Honor Society, Mu Alpha Theta, and The Tri-M Honor Society. Additionally, she is on track to graduate as a “Platinum Alpha Student,” the highest educational designation offered by Alton High School.

Abbie currently serves as Alton High School’s National Honor Society President. She leads weekly meetings of 60+ members and coordinates a tutoring program for students in Math, Science, and English from 2nd to 11th grade. At the beginning of this school year, she organized an NHS project in which students encouraged their peers, teachers, administrators, and school staff. She led a group of students who produced 2,000 handwritten Post-it Notes with encouraging messages and attached the notes to lockers the night before the first day at AHS. Her story was even featured on KMOV News 4, The Riverbender, and The Telegraph.

Beyond the NHS, Abbie also volunteers with many other organizations. She served as an Assisted Living Volunteer by interacting with older residents in a variety of ways including, an Easter Egg Hunt, a Halloween Party, calling Bingo, or just sitting with them 1:1 and talking. She raised over $8,000 for the ABOB Virtual Auction by collecting donations, certificates, and baskets. The money she raised gave students in the Alton School District access to band and orchestra instruments to participate in the music program. During the summer, she volunteers with the Royal Family Kids Camp. RFKC provides summer camps for abused and neglected children in the foster care system. She also serves weekly as a Children's Mentor with Cornerstone Kids.

Abbie is also very involved in music. She has played the cello for almost 10 years. This year, she served as a Cello Section leader in the Symphonic Orchestra, the high school’s top orchestral ensemble. She also plays in Chamber Orchestra, which performs at community events, and also in the Pit, which performs in the spring musicals. During 2020, she auditioned and was selected for the ILMEA All-District Conference.

This past week, Abbie traveled to Washington DC as one of the 14 students chosen nationwide for The American Battlefield Trust’s Youth Leadership Team. ABT works to preserve America’s most hallowed grounds; battlefields. She spent many days lobbying Congress for the continuation of the American Battlefield Protection Program. She also served as one of the youngest campaign volunteers for Mayor David Goins. Abbie sees a career in government as a challenging yet meaningful endeavor that she hopes to explore throughout her life. Abbie hopes to obtain her undergraduate degree in Political Science and then attend Law School with the ultimate goal of becoming a judge. She has had many great experiences in community service thus far and has found them to be as impactful for her as she had hoped they would be for those she was working to help.

Elizabeth Guenther, daughter of Thomas and Amy Guenther, is a senior at Marquette Catholic High School. Maintaining a 4.7 GPA on a 4.0 scale, she is a member of the National Honors Society, the National Society of High School Scholars, and was named an Illinois State Scholar. Along with her extensive academic achievements, Elizabeth is active in activities both at school and in her community. She has been a captain of the Marquette Scholar Bowl team and competed on the Academic Challenge team in chemistry, math and English. As a leading member of the theater department, she has performed in musicals and plays, also contributing as a student director and playwright. Three of her published scripts have been performed publicly at multiple schools. As a founding member of the Marquette Prolife Club and an active member of campus ministry, Elizabeth puts her faith into action.

In her community and home parish, Elizabeth has also taken leadership roles and participated in community service such as raising money and supporting charities, including Socks-A-Lot and Billy’s Kids. As an active parishioner of St. Elizabeth Parish in Granite City, she is a lector and Extraordinary Eucharistic Minister and volunteers at the parish picnic and fish fries. Elizabeth is also directing one of her plays for the kindergarten through 8th grade students of St Elizabeth Drama Club.

She plans to attend a four-year university with a double major in business and creative writing and continue to participate in many extracurriculars, including theater and campus ministry, throughout college. Her dream is to one day open her own business and become a published young adult author. She hopes to increase women’s presence in the business world, and create strong charters that will inspire the next generation of readers.

Abigail and Elizabeth each received plaques recognizing their achievement from Alton-Godfrey Rotary Club President Steve Schwartz.

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