Piston Legend Rick Mahorn Awards Detroit Students $100k
“Bad Boy” Rick Mahorn has teamed up with the Detroit Pistons Foundation for 19 years to award tens of thousands of dollars in secondary education funding to Detroit high school students. The tradition continued this yeas as six DPS students were chosen to share $100,000 in scholarship money to aid in paying for their college education after showcasing their Black excellence to a panel of judges.
The grand prize winner, King Bethel, who attended Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, performed in the poetry slam competition, where he won the Earl Lloyd Award. for coming in first place, Bethel received 25,000 in scholarship funds.
Piston Legend Rick Mahorn Awards Detroit Students $100k
In partnership with Priority Health, Karis Robinson of Marygrove College placed second in the poetry contest, winning a total of $15,000 in scholarship funds, and CarRyn Gilbert of Cass Tech finished third, winning $10,000 in scholarship funds. The Black History Month Scholarship Event included a poster competition in addition to poetry competition. Students were challenged to design a poster that answered the question, “How Do You Embody Black Excellence?”. First-place went to Leah Vaughn, a student at U Prep Academy. She took home a total of $25,000 and the first ever Earl Cureton Award.
Earl Cureton was not only a long time ambassador for the Detroit Pistons, a former player, but also grew up in the city of Detroit, who had just recently passed away. The Pistons organization released a statement about the Earl Cureton award and it’s recipient saying, “After his passing, the organization and his good friend, Rick Mahorn, wanted to honor Earl’s legacy by naming the annual poster contest winner the Earl Cureton Scholarship Award, which was won this year by Leah Vaughn of U Prep Academy.”
The organization also stated, “Since Earl began as a Community Ambassador for the Detroit Pistons, he’s joined Pistons Legend Rick Mahorn in celebrating Black History Month at the annual scholarship event. The scholarship event was one of Earl’s favorite community events to take part in as he saw the talented Detroit students perform and celebrate their Black Excellence.”
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