The Yuma County Fair provides an opportunity for community organizations to support future careers in agriculture and related fields by presenting scholarships to local high school seniors.

This year, nine students were recognized for their hard work, including Carolyn Meade, the recipient of a $5,000 Addison Auza Scholarship.

The Addison Auza Scholarship Fund was founded by David and Jill Auza in memory of their daughter, Addison, who passed away in 2018 at the age of 11 due to an undetected arteriovenous malformation in her brain.

Addison would have been graduating high school and heading off to college this year. She joined 4-H to show multiple lambs at the age of 9, becoming a Junior Showman Grand Champion at the Maricopa County Fair. Some of her other favorite pastimes were reading, guitar and dance.

“Addy loved her family and friends deeply, and she always had a smile on her face and a helping hand for a friend in need,” said her father, David Auza. “Addy embodied everything good in this world. She was humble, kind, generous, friendly, empathetic, hard-working, helpful and so many other amazing things. She was our angel in heaven.”

Over the last six years, the Auzas have raised over $560,000 and have paid out over $240,000 to previous scholarship awardees.

“We created this scholarship in her honor because we wanted to reward these young adults for embodying the same characteristics that Addy did, because we know how much hard work goes into these projects,” David said.

This year, the Yuma County Fair’s Junior Livestock Committee partnered with the Auza family to sponsor two additional scholarships: A $3,000 scholarship awarded to James Brody Glenn and a $2,000 scholarship awarded to Alaina Jaime.

Additional scholarship winners from this year’s county fair included Tanner Loghry, Brayden Loghry, Cienna Kelly, Samantha Luna, Faith Voorhies and Logan Bathrick.