Congratulations to the area eighth-graders who recently were selected as recipients of scholarships by the Charlotte Local Education Foundation as part of its Take Stock in Children program.

According to a release from the foundation, those selected scholars were Austin Djafar-Zade and Nicholas McCarthy of L.A. Ainger Middle School; Randall Boyd and Anthony Vigliotti of Murdock Middle School; Shawn Holloway and Alexander Villatte of Port Charlotte Middle School; and Angelina Griffin, Jared Pliquett-Neumeister, Victoria Grimaldi, Carlynn Share and Matthew Newberry of Punta Gorda Middle School.