Rotary Club of Benicia’s Lisa Guerin (right) presents Gillian O’Leary wiht the Jack Bell Merit Award for her accomplishments in the Benicia High School theater department and volunteer work in the community.

BENICIA – Rotary Club’s philosophy is “Service above Self.”  The worldwide organization gives money to many organizations locally and around the globe.  Locally, the Benicia Rotary Club is very involved in helping the Benicia Teen Center or the Kyle Hyland Foundation, Liberty High School, Benicia High School, Benicia Education Foundation, and many other local organizations.

This year’s Rotary Club of Benicia’s Jack Bell Merit Awards were chosen to give $500 to four recipients from the Theater Arts Department at Benicia High School. The director of the Theater Arts Program is Nathan Day.

The recipients of the Jack Bell Merit Awards are:

1)  Logan Bledsoe

2)  Will Thompson

3)  Kaitlyn De La Cruz

4)  Gillian O’Leary

A special recipient is Gillian O’Leary. She will be attending UC Santa Cruz as a theater major.  She wants to create her own art in her career and give back to help people overcome their challenges through theater.

She, like many high school students struggled with being accepted and theater really helped her feel a sense of belonging. It was cathartic and healing for her. She also volunteered with Bay Area Creative Kids, an organization for elementary students in Benicia. They focus on art and the program ends with the kids putting on a show.

O’Leary said that working with young children, many of whom showed early signs of anxiety, really made her realize that she wanted to help young kids get through their anxiety and depression by the expression of theater arts. O’Leary said she realized that she wanted to focus her education on becoming a drama therapist.

She wants to enter in as a theater major and later on double major in psychology which would put her on the path of becoming a drama therapist. She says,

“At the end of the day, I want to help people,” said O’Leary. “Theater helped me grow as a person and one day I want to be able to pass that down to someone.”

Her mother, Michelle O’Leary was a volunteer for parents for several years and was very instrumental in organizing flyers for plays, gathering parents to help the night of the plays with ticket sales, snack bar, ushering, etc. putting in a huge amount of time.

Congratulations to all of the recipients of this year’s Jack Bell Merit Awards.

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