Students Get 'Focused' With Wheels Four A's

SEBRING - Three Highlands County high school graduates each own a Ford Focus, courtesy of the Wheel's for A's program of the Alan Jay Automotive Network.

Quacey Fletcher of Avon Park High, Tara Weeks of Lake Placid High and Sydney Ruble of Sebring High were on hand at Alan Jay Ford Lincoln Mercury on Tuesday to officially take possession of their new set of wheels.

The Wheels for A's program awards a late model preowned car to one graduate at each county high school, chosen through a random drawing. Students who enter get a ticket in the drawing for each "A" grade they have on their third-quarter report card.

Collectively, the three winners had 45 A's.

Fletcher said it was funny when the winning name was pronounced "Tracey" instead of "Quacey" at the Avon Park graduation ceremony, but everybody clapped anyway.

Fletcher will be driving her car to Orlando where she will attend the University of Central Florida to study nursing.

Weeks will be driving to Twentynine Palms, Calif. in a month or two to visit her fiancé who is in the Marine Corps.

"I love it," she said of having her own car. "I mean I'm going to California and I have no payments and the gas mileage is good."

Ruble will be driving her Focus to Gainesville to attend the University of Florida where she will study anthropology. She had a 1999 Camaro.

"But, it kind of sucks gas," she said with a laugh.

This is the 10th anniversary of the Wheels for A's program, which means the Alan Jay Automotive Network has given away 30 cars to graduating seniors.

"It's been a program that we have been absolutely thrilled to be part of," said Alan Jay Wildstein. "In today's economic times, sometimes you have to make some hard choices and can't support things as much as you might have in the past and we never once questioned this program.

"It's really exciting - every year we're blessed with some really smart kids and it's amazing with the amount of A's and the amount of entries that we had."

When the winner is announced at the ceremony and the graduates applaud and yell, "you know you drew a lucky name and a good name," he said.