Blount receives Friday Flyer Carolyn Knight Scholarship

Canyon Lake Temescal Canyon High School graduate Kassidy Blount has been named the recipient of the 2021 Carolyn Knight Memorial Scholarship awarded by The Friday Flyer.

“We feel like Kassidy is the perfect recipient of this award,” Chuck Golding, The Friday Flyer publisher, said. “Before Carolyn passed away several years ago, she was riveted on the honoring of a local young woman after her death. Kassidy not only is a great student who is continuing her education, but, like Carolyn, is a writer who is looking to pursue a career in the publishing business.”

Kassidy Blount is the 2021 recipient of the Carolyn Knight Memorial Scholarship given annually by The Friday Flyer in honor of its former editor.

Kassidy obtained a 4.163 grade point average while taking AP and honors classes at Temescal Canyon High School. She served the school as a member of the yearbook staff all four years at the school, including being the Photo Editor the last three years. Additionally, Kassidy was on the Varsity Tennis team for three years and served as a captain this final senior year.

Kassidy will be attending California Baptist University in Riverside this fall. She received a full scholarship to the school.

“I’m so deeply honored and blessed to have received this Friday Flyer scholarship and to be given the chance to keep Carolyn Knight’s memory alive,” Kassidy said. “You don’t know how much of an honor this is for me. Thank you so much.”

Carolyn Knight, who passed away June 13, 2017, was the Executive Editor of The Friday Flyer from 1990 until her death, the last few years in an emeritus status. The scholarship is awarded to a Canyon Lake student who best epitomizes the standards Carolyn stood for, particularly a young woman involved in community service and advocating community improvement. Carolyn’s career and community life was filled with such service and typically included writing and publishing.

One of Kassidy’s favorite classes at Temescal Canyon High School was her AP Literature class where she particularly enjoyed the study of fictional literature. She thoroughly enjoyed her role as the Photo Editor of the school’s yearbook largely because “I wanted to make sure all Temescal Canyon memories were captured perfectly,” she said.

“Kassidy has stepped up in her leadership role in yearbook,” Yearbook Advisor Sarah Brust said. “She has taken on all the responsibilities I have given her, which has been quite a load. She never complained or made excuses, but just got done what was before her. I could count on her to follow through and communicate with those she was leading.”

Kassidy views her making the Temescal Canyon varsity tennis team as a sophomore as one of her greatest accomplishments at the school.

“I have learned so many lessons from tennis,” she said. “I know never to give up, that teamwork makes the dream work, and that shared interests make the strongest friendships. I do not know where I would be today without tennis and my teammates. I will never forget my high school experience and that is not because of the classes I took, but the extracurriculars and the friends I have made.”

“I have found Kassidy to be an invaluable team member and leader,” Kassidy’s tennis coach Laural Hebein-Pulley said. “Kassidy is not only an excellent team player, but also an outstanding individual. She easily makes friends and is motivating and understanding. She knows that hard work and dedication is what brings success.”

After her education is complete, Kassidy is looking forward to a career as a book publisher. She plans on majoring in English at Cal Baptist “in order to broaden my literary horizon and prepare myself for my career,” she said.

This Carolyn Knight scholarship is one several scholarships the outstanding student received, including scholarships from Canyon Lake clubs.

Each year The Friday Flyer awards a scholarship to a deserving graduate, a promise Chuck made to his dear friend and business partner. Fourteen years ago, the two sat in Carolyn’s living room and chatted about her pending retirement. It was there, in the spring of 2007, that Chuck made a promise he thought would be decades before he’d have to make good.

“Upon my death,” Carolyn asked Chuck, “Please have the newspaper sponsor a scholarship in my name to a graduating high school senior. I don’t care the amount or the qualifications of the recipient, but I want my name associated with the promotion of education.”

Throughout her life she battled a life-threatening allergy to sulfites, and had many brushes with death. As a breast cancer survivor, she was one of four Canyon Lake women who founded the Bosom Buddies Support Group, advocating for others facing the same battle.

Carolyn always valued education, and although her plans were placed on hold when she married at age 18, she never gave up her dream of earning a college degree. After 14 years of study and raising her two girls, she obtained her BA from California State University Fullerton.

Carolyn moved to Canyon Lake with her husband Vick Knight in 1981. After working with the Canyon Lake POA and editing newsletters that went to Canyon Lake residents, she became editor of the community’s newspaper, The Friday Flyer. Later, she and Chuck became co-owners.