Five Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative Middle High School seniors have been awarded Winthrop L. and Bernice Blake Perry Scholarships. 

Christian Balusek, Jaryd Clark, Mia Gorman, Lily Gibson and Noah Jaffe are this year's recipients of awards for students living in Milford, Wilton or Lyndeborough.

To compete for these awards, students must compose three separate essays. In one, they must describe a person who embodies their idea of excellence. In another, they must discuss what they hope to achieve in the next step of their education, and finally, they must explain something in which they excel, be it academics, an art or sport or another area. 

Finalists are then required to attend an in-person interview with the selection committee. Recipients are chosen based on their excellent character, academic performance, talent, ambition and financial need, according to an email from Kate Gosselin, assistant principal at WLC. The awards total $65,000.

This philanthropy comes from Milford resident Bernice Perry, who took up flying after World War II after marveling at the pilots flying off to Europe. She met future husband Winthrop at Grenier Field, now Manchester-Boston Regional Airport, and was the first woman in New England to hold a commercial pilot’s license.

The couple invented a wing-mounted camera for taking aerial pictures and developed them in their basement, becoming known in the 1930s for her aerial photography, including site mapping to help develop airports in New Hampshire

“This year, all the winners are from WLC, which makes us very proud of them,” said WLC Superintendent Paul Weaver.