Uncommon Student award recipient has ties to Newton

West Des Moines Valley High School senior Kathryn Wittrock recently earned the Herbert Hoover Uncommon Student Award and $11,500 in scholarship funds.

Fourteen ‘Uncommon Students’ from 2019 presented the results of their summer service projects during the 22nd Annual Herbert Hoover Uncommon Student Award Stanley and Helen Howe Presentation Day in October at the Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch. Each of the finalists receives a $1,500 cash award at the completion of the program. Three earn the Pete and Meredith Hoover scholarship, worth an additional $10,000, for a total of $11,500. Wittrock earned the $10,000 scholarship for her project, Recycling Instruments for Needy Kids (RINKS).

“I started a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization named RINKS to distribute instruments from basements or attics into the hands of students who could not otherwise afford to participate in band programs,” she said. Her goal is to eliminate the financial barriers preventing underprivileged students in Central Iowa from participating in school music programs.

Wittrock is the daughter of Eric and Kristi Wittrock of Urbandale and the granddaughter of Keith and Mary Ann Eckhart of Newton and Vern and Ruth Wittrock of Sanborn.