Contributed SCHOLARSHIPS AWARDED — Scholarship winners were recognized by the Undo's Upper Ohio Valley Italian Festival during Sunday's dinner.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The Undo’s Upper Ohio Valley Italian Festival Board honored 12 local high school students, one from each of the counties represented by the festival, during Sunday’s recognition dinner at Undo’s Restaurant.

Counties represented by the festival are Jefferson and Belmont in Ohio and Brooke, Hancock, Marshall and Ohio in West Virginia. Each recipient was awarded a $1,500 Scholarship that was based on their academic and extracurricular high school achievements. Recipients included Kaitlin Brodegard (Ohio), Lakyn Call (Belmont), Gavin Geisse (Hancock), Alina Holliday (Marshall), Brooke Kovalski (Jefferson), Elliott McDonald (Brooke), Connor Ray (Brooke), Brady Roe, (Belmont), Mary Rhode (Jefferson), Lillian Roknich (Hancock), Grace Tamburin (Ohio) and Kaylee White (Marshall.)

The festival also honored Robert “Bob” Contraguerro Jr. as this year’s Italian American of the Year. Contraguerro is the vice president of Panhandle Cleaning and Restoration, a company founded by his father Bob Sr., was also the Italian American of the year in 2012. The Contraguerro family has long been supportive not only of the festival but the community, including donations of $250,000 to the Wheeling YMCA and $500,000 to Wheeling University.

This year’s festival will be held July 24-26 at Wheeling’s Heritage Port.