by David Snow
The Paducah Sun
February 12, 2022
Used with permission.
Christopher Allen keeps a busy schedule, but he finds a way to balance schoolwork, a job and an athletics schedule to make it all work. He is one of six members of the PaxtonScholars Class XII.
The scholarships are distributed through the McCracken County Community Care Endowment Inc., known as MCCCE Inc. The $1 million endowment was started by Fred Paxton and his wife, Peggy.
Fred Paxton was a former chairman of the board and president of Paxton Media Group — which owns The Paducah Sun and WPSD-TV — and was a publisher for The Sun.
A junior at Paducah Tilghman High School, Allen is involved with several sports, including football and track and field, and is a member of the Boys to Gentlemen Group. He also works at Olive Garden.
Allen enjoys community service as well as helping at his church, Washington Street Missionary Baptist Church.
Allen said that being named a PaxtonScholar was an honor, but his mother reacted more than he did.
“It was something new to me that Ms. (Shonda) Burrus helped me get involved with; I didn’t know what it meant,” he said. “Then, when I got chosen, she was the first one to tell me, and I said, ‘This is something I never thought I could accomplish.’
“Then, I told my mother, and she said, ‘You’re going to be the first one in generations of our family who is actually going to college and has money to go to college’ besides my other cousin, who went for basketball.”
Allen said he enjoys math and wants to become an engineer like his father.
“But I want to become a different type of engineer,” he said. “My brother is a mechanical engineer, and I want to be somewhere different so we all can say, ‘We’re in the engineering program, but we all work in different stations.’ ”
Allen said he hopes to be able to garner athletics scholarships along with academic scholarships.
“I’ve always been taught to have a plan in life,” he said. “Always have a Plan A and a Plan B. So, if sports doesn’t work (for scholarships), then I can go for academics, and even if sports does work, I can still go for academics.
“Football is my passion. I’ve played football since second grade, and I’ve been under my uncle’s wing; he’s taught me a lot. Football is not my only option; I also have track.”
Allen said the laptop has helped him with projects when he is away from the computer at school.
“And the scholarship money helps me and my parents so they don’t have to go bankrupt trying to send me to college,” he said. “I have that money helping along with the (Kentucky Education Excellence Scholarship) money because of my grades.
“I feel blessed, actually. It’s a gift from God. Not everybody gets a chance at this, and I was blessed to be one of the six to be chosen.”
Allen recommends to students that they make an effort when opportunities arise.
“Always take a chance,” he said. “You will never accomplish anything if you don’t take a chance at something. I took a chance at applying for the Paxton scholarship, and I got it. You’ll never be able to succeed in life if you don’t take risks and chances.”
Allen is the son of Tasha Allen of Paducah and David Haddox of Chicago.
The Paducah Sun is publishing an article about two of this year’s PaxtonScholar winners each Saturday in Paducah. For more information about MCCCE Inc., visit mccce.org.