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BUSINESS 20A, 21ACOMICS 1D

CROSSWORD 5GOBITUARIES 10B-11B

LOTTERY 2COPINION 22A

DALLAS AIMS TO KEEP LEAD IN THE NFC EAST WITH WIN OVER SAINTS. SPORTS, 1C

FOCUS ON FIRST

Take a look back at our

yearlong series on the fi nancial,

physical, emotional and psychological

cost of diabetes in the Coastal

Bend.

PUTTING YOUR WORLD IN YOUR HANDS.

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COST OF

DIABETES

By Kirsten Crowkirsten.crow@caller.com361-886-4316

It’s unclear what shape the city’s bayfront eventually will take fol-lowing voters’ resounding rejection of a $44.6 million bond, and it likely will be the new year before the Cor-pus Christi City Council formally addresses the question.

Days after election returns blared a clear message that voters would not back the bond — dis-missing it with 65 percent of bal-lots cast against the measure — it was uncertain what eventually would become of the Destination Bayfront project, how $4.5 million

remaining from a 2008 bond issue could be used to improve existing park land, and what direction city leaders would move in to begin an-swering those and other questions.

The campaign season for the bond was short but strenuous, and by its end, contentious.

Several council members said it was appropriate in light of the elec-tion returns to take ample time to refl ect and reassess before launch-ing a new conversation about what to do with the bayfront.

City Councilmen Chad Magill and Rudy Garza Jr. said they hoped to resume discussion on options for

Future of bayfront falls to council ■ Several urge reflection before action

Hunter Reeves, 4, climbs on the McCaughan Park playgroundOct. 12. Mayor Nelda Martinez said replacing the children’s playground equipment could be a prior-ity for the bay-front, following voters’ rejection of the $44.6 mil-lion Destination Bayfront bond.MICHAEL ZAMORA/CALLER-TIMES FILE

See BAYFRONT, 9A

By Beatriz AlvaradoSpecial to the Caller-Times

Gregory Portland High School junior Travis Garbe acknowledges that in a wheelchair there are some things he can’t do.

But spinal muscular at-rophy Type 2, which causes weakness and wasting of the muscles in the arms and legs , couldn’t stop Garbe from being recog-nized for doing the things he can.

Garbe has been through two major surgeries dur-ing his high school career but remains active in the school’s video technology program, National Honor Society, Business Profes-sionals of America, the National Forensics league, and the math team. He plans to major in computer science at the University of Texas in the fall.

Focused ON THE

future

PHOTOS BY GEORGE TULEY/SPECIAL TO THE CALLER-TIMES

F ront row, from left: Sara Surani, Le’anna Grimes, Nancy Ndolo, Brooke Ward, Mikaila Rushing, Travis Garbe; second row: Larry Elizondo (C itgo), Paige Com-stock, Caitlin Labay, Trenton Strait, De’Naesha Mitchell, Danielle Edmonds, Michelle Alvarez, Alexis Whalen, Lucero Perez, Michael Vasquez; last row: Benjamin Tintera, Michael Cantu Jr., Haley Teel, Quentin Washington, Karina Buerk, Steven Elizaldi, Andres Camarillo, Roman Narvaez, Yliana Salinas and Darrell Cole-man, president and publisher of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, gathered at the Omni Bayfront Hotel in Corpus Christi on Saturday .

Michael Cantu Jr. ( center) sits with his sister Madi-lynn Cantu, 8 , and his brother Mat-thew Cantu, 12 , after receiving his award in the student athlete category Saturday at Omni Bay-front Hotel in Corpus Christi .

BOXING CARD COVERAGESPORTS, 1C

ABBOTT AHEAD IN THE POLLSLOCAL, 1B

By Mike Bairdbairdm@caller.com361-886-3774

Two friends whose lives paralleled as they excelled in separate in-terests bubbled to the top among this year’s

2013 Caller-Times/Citgo Distinguished Scholars.

Moody High School student athlete Michael Cantu and Roman Nar-vaez , chosen for his community service and leadership, were born in the same hospital room on diff erent days. Their moms had a joint baby shower when the boys were infants .

Each entered the Athena program. Both

have perfect attendance since kindergarten. And they both plan to attend the University of Texas in Austin.

“It’s very quirky,” said Navaez , who wants to study health sciences. “We run in different circles, but I know if ei-ther of us need anything, we’re always open to help each other.”

Scholars are lifelong buds

$2.00 ■ CITY EDITIONSUNDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2013

Proposed federal policy change could allow fracking wastewater to be transported on barges along the Texas coast. LOCAL, 1B

77 /̊58˚ Partly sunny

with showers 23A

■ Friends are on parallel course in life

See FRIENDS, 10A

INSIDEMeet the judges. 10A

See a list of the scholars and on what days their stories will run in the Caller-Times. 10A

■ Students honored with scholarships

See SCHOLARS, 10A

DEATH TOLL UP IN PHILIPPINESNATION, 10A

TODAYKick Off

MONDAYCareer

TUESDAYCommunications

WEDNESDAYGeneral Academics

THURSDAYPerforming &

Fine Arts

FRIDAYScience

SATURDAYAchiever

SUNDAYAchiever

NOV. 18Service &

Leadership

NOV. 19Service &

Leadership

NOV. 20Student Athlete

NOV. 21Spirit

NOV. 22Technology

10A » Sunday, November 10, 2013 » C A L L E R - T I M E S

The 2013 Caller-Times/Citgo South Texas Distinguished Scholars awards are presented

to winners in 10 categories. The finalists will be listed and winners profiled on these days.

Rosaura De Los San-tos Bailey, Service & Leadership

Maria Jimenez, Achiever

Chuck Auldridge, Technology

Margaret Neu, Technol-ogy

Mary Daniel Goldston, Career

Yogesh Shah, General Academics

Margaret Deville, Science

Nick Jimenez, Career

Arthur Haas, General Academics

Robert Reed, Performing & Fine Arts

Larry Silvas, Performing & Fine Arts

Rosie Collin, Spirit

Hector Gam-boa-Arizpe, Science

Omar Lopez, Spirit

Barbara Grif-fin, Commu-nications

Adam Nuse, Student Athlete

Jovita Marti-nez, Service & Leadership

Vicki Triplett, Spirit

Jessica Da-vila-Burnett, Achiever

Minerva Arriaga, General Academics

Greg Rajan, Student Athlete

Matt Peter-son, Student Athlete

Andy Heines, Communica-tions

Bob Torres, Science

Randy Flow-ers, Career

Terry Mills, Technology

Ticia Hanisch, Service & Leadership

Becky Ponce, Achiever

Richard Guerrero Jr., Performing & Fine Arts

Matt Rogers, Communica-tions

JUDGES AND CATEGORIES

These friends were cho-sen among 25 Coastal Bend students awarded $1,000 scholarships Saturday. The scholarships are paid by Citgo and administered by Coastal Bend Commu-nity Foundation.

“All of these kids are good students,” said Steve Arnold, vice president of marketing for the Caller-Times. “But this program also celebrates the success of some students who have overcome significant chal-lenges.”

This year’s winners were selected by 30 judg-es, divided into teams for 10 categories. Five stu-dents are awarded in the Achiever category, four in Service & Leadership, and two students are se-lected in the remaining seven categories: Career, Communications, General Academics, Performing & Fine Arts, Science, Student Athlete Spirit and Tech-nology.

Students are recom-mended by school admin-

istrators. Judges reviewed 310 student essays from 48 Coastal Bend High Schools.

“The judges had no idea that they have chosen these two friends,” said Diana Narvaez, Roman’s mother, who is a truant officer at Moody High School.

Rosaura De Los Santos Bailey is one of three judg-es who selected Narvaez’s son. She was impressed with Roman Narvaez’s dedication to becoming emergency medical tech-nician certified at a young age; and his essay’s humble description of the people who influenced him.

“It’s a true challenge to choose someone when all the nominees had incred-ible leadership in their own ways,” Bailey said. “It was unique Roman could define leadership by the people who influenced his life.”

Michael Cantu’s father also works at Moody as a head coach.

“It’s been a complete whirlwind right now with graduation coming up,” said Michael Cantu, who

plans to study petrochemi-cal engineering and playbaseball. “It’s a true bless-ing Roman and I have been friends growing up. It’sfunny how things end uplike this.”

They weren’t the only friends recognized Satur-day for their success.

Haylee Uptergrove and Karina Buerk at Gregory-Portland High School have been inseparable since sixth grade, their families said. However they were nominated in separate categories — Haylee for Communications and Kar-ina in Technology. Karina agreed to accept the award for her best female friend because Haylee had a pre-scheduled college visit.

For many years two students were awarded ineach of nine categories, but Citgo increased fund-ing last year for 25 studentsto receive scholarships.

This is the 25th year for the program, which began with $250 scholarships for nine students annually. Since 1988 there have been 4,060 area students nomi-nated, and 450 scholar-ships have been awarded.

FRIENDS from 1A

“Instead of looking at things I can’t do, and there are plenty of them, I try to focus on the things I can do and try to excel at them,” Garbe said.

Garbe was one of five recipients recognized Saturday in the Achiever category at the 2013 Call-er-Times/Citgo Distin-guished Scholars luncheon. He was among 25 Coastal Bend students awarded $1,000 scholarships this year in categories such as Communications, Career, Performing & Fine Arts, Science, Service & Leader-ship, Student Athlete and Spirit.

Winners were selected by 30 community judges who reviewed the 310 es-says and school transcripts of students nominated by school administrators. The scholarships, sponsored by Citgo and administered by Coastal Bend Community Foundation, were distrib-uted among 48 area schools and 11 counties.

Project engineering manager for Citgo Yo-gesh Shah was a judge in the General Academics category who said it was challenging to choose two of 30 submissions for the scholarship.

“These kids amaze me,” Shah said. “They give me confidence that we have a future.”

This is his fourth year to judge, and he said he picked Mary Carroll high school senior Sara Surani based not only on her 113 grade-point average, but her extracurricular activity involvement and her many accomplishments.

Surani is an AP scholar, University Interscholastic League competitor, mem-ber of the National Foren-sic League and Destination ImagiNation, and partici-pates in mock trial events, among other activities.

Surani is pursuing a medical profession, hav-

ing already published two medical papers.

“You really grow as a person participating in various activities,” Surani said. “You get to find out who you are by doing all these different things. “

That idea rang true for many of the scholars hon-ored at Saturday’s banquet.

Service and Leadership recipient Nancy Ndolo of Rockport-Fulton High School struggled to create a life for herself and her mother in the U.S. after coming here from Kenya about four years ago. Ndo-lo and her mother found themselves in a foreign country with no place to go.

Residents of Rockport provided them with assis-tance and influenced her to appreciate everything she has.

“I am not one of those

special people who is born with a gift of a being lead-er,” Ndolo said. “I think I learned it day by day.”

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Distin-guished Scholars program, which started out with $250 scholarships to nine students.

A six-year partnership with Citgo continues toprovide additional fund-ing for deserving students.

Spokesperson for Citgo Larry Elizondo said 30 stu-dents will be awarded next year, creating an 11th award category for vocational stu-dents.

“It takes all of us to make a community,” Elizondo said as he announced the news at the luncheon.

Since 1988 more than4,600 area students have been nominated, and 450 scholarships have been awarded.

SCHOLARS from 1A SCHOLARS

ACHIEVER

Calallen High School: Trenton Strait Carroll High School: De’Naesha Mitchell Gregory-Portland High School: Travis Mack Garbe Rockport-Fulton High School: Le’anna Gail Grimes Three Rivers High School: Mikaila Marie Rushing

CAREER

Calallen High School: Alexis Wahlen Incarnate Word Academy: Lucero Perez

COMMUNICATIONS

Gregory-Portland High School: Haylee Uptergrove King High School: Danielle Edmonds

GENERAL ACADEMICS

Carroll High School: Sara S. Surani Ray High School: Paige — Christina ComstockPerforming & Fine ArtsKing High School: Benjamin H. Tintera

Ray High School: Andres Luke CamarilloScienceCalallen High School: Michelle Alvarez Ray High School: Caitlin E Labay

SERVICE & LEADERSHIP

Miller High School: Steven Elizaldi Moody High School: Roman Narvaez Rockport-Fulton High School: Nancy Ndolo Taft High School: Michael Bryan Vasquez

STUDENT ATHLETE

Gregory-Portland High School: Haley Brianne Teel Moody High School: Michael Cantu Jr.

SPIRIT

Moody High School: Yliana Renea Salinas Tuloso-Midway High School: Brooke Ward

TECHNOLOGY

Gregory-Portland High School: Karina Buerk Skidmore-Tynan High School: Quentin Washington

Meet the winners at

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