Chamber awards scholarships

West Milford — The West Milford Chamber of Commerce awarded two scholarships to West Milford High School seniors who will be pursuing a career in business. This year’s recipients are Brittany Veninger and Maria Yeghiazaryan. Brittany and Maria, along with their mothers, Karine Arshakyan and Edna Veninger, were guests of honor at the dinner event held at Momento II Restaurant in West Milford. Brittany will be attending The University of Findlay in Ohio where she will be majoring in business and equine studies. Brittany has a longtime passion for working with horses and riders including people with disabilities. Her goal is to someday own and operate her own facility. Maria will be majoring in business management at Montclair State University. Maria has been a successful track and field competitor during her years at West Milford High School, and has also discovered a love for the food services industry during her six years of part-time work in local restaurants. Maria hopes to establish her own Bakery Cafe in the metropolitan area. The monies raised for the yearly scholarships are through the efforts of West Milford Chamber of Commerce members and the various events hosted throughout the year, in addition to the generous donation of the Wilbur J. Fredericks Fund, established in honor of Wilbur Fredericks, one of the founders of the West Milford Chamber in 1949 and past president. The dinner event included guest speaker, Mark Fredericks, grandson of Wilbur. Mark Fredericks gave a brief history of the Fredericks family, which has been in the West Milford/Oak Ridge area since 1783. Rea Wundrack Lippner, vice president of the Chamber, thanked her fellow scholarship committee members, Lorraine Berry Detito and Larry May for dedicating a huge amount of time to review over 80 applications. Each of the 80 applicants was worthy of an award for their scholastic and community achievements, Lippner said, so the task of choosing the two finalists was quite challenging.