Kohl's Awards $1K Scholarship to West Roxbury Student for Outstanding Community Service

The Kohl’s Department Stores awarded West Roxbury's Tristan Kelley a Kohl’s Cares® Scholarship Program with a $1,000 scholarship toward higher education.

Kelley was one of four children from the Boston-area were chosen from more than 35,000 nominees nationwide for making a positive impact in their local communities, according to a press release. With the help of his brother, Tristan created Backbacks for New Beginnings.

Kohl’s created the Cares Scholarship Program to help youth to "further their education at a time when college costs continue to rise and parents are relying heavily on federal and private student loans to fund higher education." 

Local recipients of $1,000 scholarships are:

• Paige Carpenter, 10, Tewksbury – Familiar with what it’s like to be a patient at Children’s Hospital Boston, Paige coordinated a wrestling benefit event featuring local pro-wrestlers, local celebrities and raffles which raised $2,500 for the hospital. 
• Michael Gibeley, Jr., 16, Topsfield – Michael worked with local leaders to help open Top Cupboard Food Pantry to serve those in need in the Topsfield, Mass. community. He secured a location for the food pantry and collected, sorted and stocked non-perishable food donations. Michael continues to help by ensuring food items are always available and recruits volunteers to run the food pantry. 
• Tristan Kelley, 11, West Roxbury – Since 2009, Tristan and his brother have donated more than 1,500 new backpacks filled with school supplies to local kids in need through their Backpacks for New Beginnings organization. 
• Margaret Mason, 17, Rochester – Recognizing that many children in Zimbabwe don’t have shoes, Maggie decided to go barefoot for two weeks in an effort to raise money and collect shoe donations. Her efforts didn’t stop there. She traveled to Dzika, Zimbabwe where she led work camps to help renovate classrooms and spearheaded a decathlon in her community, raising $1,500 for the school in Dzika. 

Winners are chosen based on initiative, leadership, generosity and project benefits and outcome, according to a press release. Each regional-level winner qualifies for one of Kohl’s 10 national scholarships, which will be announced at the end of July. 

The Kohl’s Cares® Scholarship Program is part of Kohl’s Cares®, Kohl’s philanthropic program focused on improving the lives of children. For more information on the Kohl’s Cares® Scholarship Program, visit kohlskids.com.