Middle school set Rylie Rice and Lucia Nunes upon different paths, but before that, they’d been best friends during their days at Turlock Nursery School and Elim Elementary in Hilmar.

On Tuesday, the former besties took center stage at the 25th annual Turlock Chamber of Commerce Ag Scholarship Luncheon, where each was awarded $5,500 to continue their education.

Rice, of Pitman High, and Nunes, of Hilmar, each received $3,000 from the chamber’s ag scholarship committee, and then were given another $2,500 as winners of the Jim Booth Memorial Scholarship. Booth, who died in 2015, was one of the founding members of the scholarship committee.

“It was a complete surprise,” said Nunes, who plans to study animal science with a pre-veterinary emphasis at Fresno State, where she’ll also compete on the equestrian team. “I had no idea it was going to be so much money.”

Rice remains undecided on her college choice, but plans to major in actuarial sciences or statistics, with a concentration in ag business and finance.

“I don’t really come from an agricultural family, but I was raised showing animals,” said Rice, who showed dogs through the American Kennel Club, and rabbits, sheep and turkeys through 4-H. “I’d like to become an actuary, concentrated in agricultural insurance.”

All told, 22 students received a combined $48,000 in scholarship money on Tuesday.

“It’s only getting harder to farm in California,” said committee co-chair Jaqueline Baker, a 2010 graduate of Hilmar High and past winner of the Booth scholarship who is now a winemaker for Gallo. “And that’s really one of the priorities of this scholarship — not only students that are going to go into ag, but who are from the area and hope to return to the area and become leaders in the industry. And that takes a lot of money to do. I was one of the students who benefited from this, and I returned, and I’m working in ag. That’s what we hope for.”

Approximately 250 guests were welcomed to the luncheon, which featured a meal of chicken, roasted potatoes, salad, vegetables, and roll — prepared by Farm Truck Catering.

The luncheon serves as one of the primary fundraisers for the scholarship fund. Added funding comes from the Charity Golf Classic. The 19th annual Classic — the 10th that will honor Booth — will be held Sept. 8 at the Turlock Golf and Country Club. It’s a four-man scramble and entry is $150 per player.

“I took over the golf tournament after Jim Booth passed,” said committee member Bryan Saint, a Realtor at Valley Heritage Realty in Turlock. “He was something of a surrogate grandfather to me growing up. After he passed away, I took his position on the ag scholarship committee. At that time, he was a director of a golf tournament for Century 21. And after his passing, we moved the beneficiary away from Salvation Army to the ag scholarship group so we could have two events each year raising scholarship money.

“Our economy around the Central Valley is dependent on agriculture, so giving back to these kids is a way that we can all help out and hopefully bring these students back to the Central Valley once they go through college.”

The chamber’s Ag in the Valley Farm to Table Dinner, slated for June 5 at 6 p.m. at the fairgrounds (tickets are $100 each), also helps bolster the scholarship fund.

Money not only goes to scholarships, but to the 4-H Farmyard Experience at the county fair, the Ag in the Classroom educational program, the agriculture program at Stanislaus State, and two internships at the Turlock Unified School District farm.

Other scholarship winners included: Lexia Lopez ($3,000), Betsy Theis ($2,000), Morgan Johns ($1,500), and Abigail Patron ($1,000) from Turlock High; Elijah Rhoads ($2,000) from Pitman; Geneve York ($2,000) and Will Tyson ($1,500) from Turlock Christian; Khloe Alberto ($2,000), Isaiah Lundquist ($1,500), and Gary Owen Coldicutt ($1,000) from Hughson; Joseph Oliveira ($2,000), Bradley Chipponeri ($1,500), Daniel Diniz ($1,500), Olivia Ariannah Velazco ($1,500) and John Labno ($1,000) from Hilmar; Natalie Gonzalez ($3,000), Anabelle Silva ($3,000), Noemi De La Torre ($1,000) from Delhi; and Emiliano Valencia ($3,000) and Arman Grewal ($2,000) from Livingston.