By Bonnie Adams, Managing Editor
Westborough – Over the years, Maria Dupree, who just graduated from Westborough High School, has always enjoyed eating at the South Street Diner. Whether it was just catching up with friends or unwinding after a “grueling mid-term,” it was a favorite place to dine. And now thanks to her essay on the restaurant she has another reason to love the diner – she was named as the recipient of its 2016 scholarship.
Each year, South Streets proprietors, Phyllis Keene and Mark Sullivan, hold a contest for students to submit an essay on what the diner means to them. It is their way, Sullivan said, to give back to the community.
In her essay, Dupree noted that her family had recently hosted Eduardo, an exchange student from Paraguay. When the family wanted to show him their hometown, they started, Dupree said, with an “obvious choice – eating brunch at the iconic South Street Diner.”
“At the diner, we all enjoyed what I think is one of the greatest parts of the human experience; sharing delicious and inexpensive food with good friends,” she wrote. “We were able to give Eduardo the experience of a classic American Diner coupled with friendly service.”
Eduardo, she added, also became a “big fan of the maple syrup” after his first ever taste of it at the diner.
Dupree will be studying music education at Ithaca College this fall.
“I am grateful for this scholarship,” she noted. “It was exciting to hear that I won it.”