The Big Island Retired Military Association presented the 2016-17 BIRMA-Mark Allen Traxler Memorial scholarship certificate of $2,000 to Hawaii Preparatory Academy graduate Dyllon Ching at their June meeting.
The award is in memory of Mark Traxler, son of James and Carol Traxler of Kailua-Kona. Ching graduated from HPA in May and has been accepted to Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Montana.
Ching was granted the BIRMA scholarship based on his high grade point average, community involvement and desire to serve in the United States Coast Guard after college. He will follow a career greatly influenced by his father Randall and his grandfather.
BIRMA awards annual scholarships to Hawaii Island high school seniors who are children of an active duty, reserve, or National Guard member of the armed forces of the U.S., or the child or grandchild of a person who retired from the armed forces of the United States with 20 or more years of active military service, or to those who have completed at least two years in a JROTC or Civil Air Patrol program at the time of application.