Posted: Wednesday, February 13, 2013 6:00 pm

The Messenger 02.13.13

Lindsey Breeden, daughter of Anna and Chuck Parks and Bryan Breeden, all of Union City, and a junior at the University of Tennessee at Martin, is the first recipient in this area of the $1,000 Dr. Pepper Tuition Giveaway.
The scholarship is being offered to the family members of employees of participating retailers of Dr. Pepper products. Little General is a proud partner in this effort in many of its businesses. Applicants are expected to be enrolled already in a higher education institution and to have proven their commitment to their future by good grades. A representative for Pepsi MidAmerica, which owns a franchise for Dr. Pepper in several communities where there are Little General stores, says the scholarship committee sets the bar high for academic achievement and then tries to reward successful efforts.
Dr. Pepper works with its participating retailers through Pepsi MidAmerica, with corporate offices in Marion, Ill., and its Paris branch office.
Miss Breeden is majoring in exercise science and wellness at UTM and is a graduate of Obion County Central High School. She was able to apply for the scholarship because her mother is an employee of Little General. Miss Breeden has also worked part-time for the company.
She is the first local recipient of the program, which annually provides in excess of a million dollars a year in college scholarships in a program linked to the beginning of the football season.
The giveaway is not an athletic scholarship, but applications for the program are offered each year in early September as the college football season gets under way and promotion is tied to NCAA conferences, such as the SEC.