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First Bishara scholarship goes to Belote

by jmaloni
Fri, Jul 25th 2014 08:20 pm

The William Bishara Memorial Scholarship was presented to Emily Belote, salutatorian of the Niagara-Wheatfield Class of 2014, at Senior Awards Night last month.

Bishara passed away, Jan. 2, and had been very active at N-W High School where his children attended and where his wife, Ann D. Bishara was member of the faculty and the co-curricular director. She also advised several classes and clubs.

Bishara supported his wife and children in every activity that he could attend. He was the vice president of the N-W Football Parents, and proctored the track, basketball, swim, volleyball, football and wrestling teams. He chaperoned many dances (proms up until 2002), field trips with performing and visual arts students to New York City, Niagara-on-the-Lake and Toronto, music trips to Florida, All-County and All-State competitions. He was a Scoutmaster and fund-raised for canoes for his troop of Boys Scouts. He was involved in planning for camping trips and instructing boys to earn badges in leadership and citizenship.

Bishara was the manager of the engineering department at Unifrax. He was an inventor and had patents with Unifrax/Carborundum Company. He trained approximately 44 engineers and wrote 48-plus articles.

He was highly respected by many of his colleagues at his workplace and even in other countries where there were major projects.

He was a member of the St. George's Antiochian Orthodox Church and sang in the choir.

Emily Belote was presented a check by Abigail Ann and Ethan, William's grandchildren, David M. Bishara, Michael D. and Jennifer Bishara, and his wife Ann D. Bishara.

Belote is the daughter of Lynn and Kenneth Belote. The salutatorian of the Niagara-Wheatfield Class of 2014, she had an average of 100.37. She was a member of the National Honor Society and had perfect attendance since fifth grade. She qualified for the Advanced Regents Diploma with honors and received the New York State scholarship for her N-W Regents exam scores.

Belote participated in varsity soccer (captain) and made third team All-WNY. She made All-County (seven years) and All-State (five years) in jazz/ band/orchestra and has been a member of the symphonic band (four years), member of stage crew and the pit orchestra for the annual musical.

She participated in the Making Strides Breast Cancer Walk, was an Empire Soccer coach and volunteered for the Tops Soccer program for kids with disabilities. She works for the Buffalo WNY Referee Association.

Belote was awarded the Music Department scholarship, Women in Engineering scholarship and Merit scholarships from SUNYAB at Binghamton where she plans to attend with a double major in environmental engineering and music performance. She also received awards from the Buffalo Musicians Association, Wheatfield Business Association, Peter P. Tycz II Memorial Scholarship, Niagara County Music Educators Association, Erie-Niagara Chapter of the Credit Union Association of New York, Niagara PAL Brian Swayze Service Award, Robert Forsythe Memorial Award, N-WHS Class of 2014 Excellence in Math Award and N-WHS Class of 2014 Excellence in Music Award.

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