Each year the Kansas Sheriffs Association awards up to $15,000 worth of educational scholarships to eligible members or family members. The eight members Scholarship Committee, chaired by Osborne County Sheriff Curtis Miner, receive the written applications and conducts interviews with all applicants. This year thirteen $1,000 awards are issued and one $2,000 Sheriff Matt Samuels Award.
Sheriff Samuels was killed in the line of duty on January 19, 2005, and shortly after that, this scholarship was established in his honor. This year there were 28 scholarship applications to be considered.
Winning one of the $1,000 scholarships for 2016 is Taylor Latham. Taylor is from Great Bend and is attending Kansas State University. Her application was sponsored by her father Cory Latham.