Fox Pest Control awards student $2,000 scholarship

Delia Cotes stands with her “Post-It Project” at Hope for NH Recovery. PHOTO: FOX PEST CONTROL

Fox Pest Control awarded a $2,000 scholarship to a student from the University of New England.

Delia Cote was awarded the scholarship for her dedication to helping individuals in the Manchester area. Cote was one of more than 60 nationwide applicants who shared essays or video submissions detailing their experiences of service in their communities.

Cote and her father created the “Post-It Project” while volunteering at Hope for NH Recovery, a nonprofit that helps people with substance abuse issues recover.

In an effort to make each person in recovery feel loved and appreciated they purchased about 600 Post-It notes, wrote inspirational messages on them and posted them over three walls in the organization.

Cote wrote instructions on the display: “Take what you need or leave one behind.” Since that day, the walls have grown with notes from visitors seeking help and encouragement.

“It was such an impactful project and I believe it has a lot of potential in any area,” Cote said. “You never know what anybody’s going through, what they’re dealing with, or maybe they’re just having a rough day. It’s just something that they need.”

Cote plans on using the funds from the scholarship to help her complete this semester of college, since money for school has been difficult for her to obtain due to medical debt from her father’s health issues.

“We were unfortunately unable to get a student loan for a really long time, so I’ve been paying semester by semester out of pocket,” she said. “This semester we were able to get a loan, but there’s still some missing, and that’s what the scholarship is going to  —   to finish off the balance for this year.”

Keith Howard, president of Hope for NH Recovery, said Cote’s project helps calm the nerves of the people that come to the organization seeking help.

“People walking in here for the first time typically have some amount of anxiety and nervousness,” Howard shared. “So when a staff person has them walk over to that wall, it gives them a chance to take 30 seconds or a minute to look over all the positive messages.”

Fox Pest Control’s CEOs Mike Romney and Bryant White expressed gratitude for all the applicants’ hard work and congratulated Cote on winning the scholarship.

“Delia embodies Fox’s core values, specifically those of Relationships First, Lift Where You Stand, and Excellence in the Ordinary,” the CEOs said in a joint statement. “She used her time as a volunteer to make the biggest impact in a way that can be passed on through all of our communities. We are honored to grant her this scholarship and look forward to seeing where she takes the world as a leader of tomorrow.”