Turlock Unified School District’s Board of Trustees recognized the Knights of Columbus, Ten Pin Fun Center and Walmart during its meeting on Tuesday for charitable contributions made to local high school students.

For nearly 75 years, Turlock’s Knights of Columbus have been doling out scholarships to students in Stanislaus and Merced counties.

“This year we gave out $13,000 in scholarships to 14 students in the area,” said Grand Knight Ron Giannone. “We have a scholarship breakfast every year to help raise money and we also have an ad booklet.”

“Given that we’re a Catholic organization, we really try to benefit the youth,” said treasurer and past Grand Knight Richard Fantazia. “And what better way than to provide scholarships for those that want to continue their education.”

Volkan Tuzer, general manager of Ten Pin Fun Center, was on hand to receive accolades from the district for Ten Pin’s donation of free 30-minute arcade game cards for every student in the district.

“We wanted to reach out to all the kids,” said Tuzer. “None of the kids in Turlock are strange to us, and we want to be a part of the community. That’s the initiative we created. We asked for permission; we were allowed; and we prepared 14,000 cards to be given to the kids at the end of the school year.”

It was Ten Pin’s way of saying congratulations to all TUSD students on a successful school year.

“We cater to Turlock,” said Tuzer. “We’re existing because of Turlock, so returning something to Turlock is the only appropriate thing to do.”

Also recognized was Walmart (Modesto) for its donation of $5,318 worth of bikes that were refurbished by the THS auto mechanics class and donated to local students.