Amanda Snyder and William Zoel Friedman Awarded Bassett Youth Foundation Scholarships

Cooperstown High School seniors Amanda Snyder and William Zoel Friedman were awarded $500 scholarships by Robert Clarke Bassett, MEd, JD, president of the Charles H. Bassett Youth Foundation. The students received their scholarships at Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown on May 13.

Friedman, who will attend Tufts University, received the Mary Augusta and Wilson T. Bassett Scholarship for excellence in scholarship, good character and exemplary service to others in the community. Friedman has been on the honor roll and a scholar athlete all four years of high school and is involved in numerous school activities.

Snyder received the Elizabeth and Benjamin Bassett Scholarship, which recognizes excellence in academics, balanced development and a willingness to overcome challenges and seize opportunities. Snyder is captain of the volleyball team, on the honor roll and has received scholar athlete awards every year in high school. She plans to attend SUNY Oneonta to earn a bachelor's degree in psychology and continue onto graduate school to receive a master's degree.

Bassett Medical Center President William LeCates, MD, congratulated the students, acknowledging them as "leaders in your school and leaders in your community."

Bassett observed that the Charles H. Bassett Youth Foundation scholarship "leaves behind something for the future generation" and he asked the scholarship recipients to "make your own mark in your own family."

Robert Clarke Bassett awards more than 20 scholarships to graduating seniors at Cooperstown Central School, Binghamton High School, Morris Central School and Owego Free Academy.

The scholarships were awarded on behalf of the Charles H. Bassett Youth Foundation, which partners with The Community Foundation for South Central New York to sustain and increase its capacity to help younger people in the Broome, Otsego and Tioga county areas.

The ceremony also included the presentation and unveiling of an acrylic painting of "Otsego Mansion" (32 Fair Street, Cooperstown) by Owego artist Robert Merwin. In 1872, the fine brick home, originally owned by the estate of William Cooper, was sold to Drs. Wilson T. and Mary Augusta Bassett, the parents of Dr. Mary Imogene Bassett, and it was used at that time as a kind of infirmary for patients. Dr. Mary Imogene Bassett referred to the Otsego Mansion as "the Bassett Homestead." The painting has been placed over a fireplace in the fieldstone building at Bassett Medical Center.