PORTLAND — At its annual meeting of the policyholders, workers’ compensation specialist The MEMIC Group awarded $15,000 in scholarships to three children of workers who suffered serious workplace injuries.

Griffin Wade of Lewiston, Kelsey Jones of Hancock and Sadie Martinez Clavijo of Hartford, Conn., each received a $5,000 toward their college ambitions.

The MEMIC Harvey Picker Horizon Scholarship has been awarded annually since 2001 to the spouse or child of a worker who has suffered a serious injury or death at work.

Wade will begin his first year at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I., to study culinary nutrition. Wade said watching his father “make sure our family has dinner every night is one of the biggest reasons I started culinary in high school. We swap ideas, cook together and compete for the best entrée.” Wade said he “learned what it means to be resilient and persevere through obstacles” from his father, a former pro golfer suffering from chronic pain after surgery on a torn rotator cuff.

Wade’s competitive spirit and dedicated team work has already led him to success in the kitchen and in the sports arena. This past year, Wade and four of his peers were selected to represent the city of Lewiston and its public school culinary arts program at the Regional ProStart Competition, where they received first place and represented Maine at the National ProStart Invitational. Wade was also selected by his peers to serve as captain of both the Lewiston High School varsity hockey team (which won the Class A State Championship earlier this year) and varsity lacrosse team.

Active in the community, Wade has volunteered for the American Diabetes Association’s Tour de Cure, Special Olympics’ Learn to Golf program and The Dempsey Challenge.

MEMIC’s scholarship program is named in honor of Harvey Picker, a former Camden resident who died in March 2008. Picker was a physicist, inventor, educator, businessman and philanthropist who valued education.