Monday night features scholarships aplenty for Suffern High School students as the annual Evening of Excellence awards dinner and ceremony takes place at the William L. Ransom auditorium at Suffern High School.

Dozens of awards will be given out Monday night as this year’s seniors have earned some $60,000 in local funds — both small and large. Scholarships in any number of areas are being awarded, including art, education, law enforcement, nursing, and public service. There are scholarships for academic achievement, athletic excellence, good citizenship, leadership, compassion for others, and even perseverance in overcoming personal or learning challenges.

Sloatsburg will also be featured in this evening’s award fare. The Sloatsburg Scholarship Fund, a local non-profit that sponsors scholarships specifically for Sloatsburg students, will once again give out awards at the dinner. The organization reached out to the community this spring to help raise both funds and awareness for the group. SSF held a mid-May Townwide Garage Sale that had some 30 Sloatsburg families join together in a same-day garage sale and the group worked with Characters Restaurant and Bar, which sponsored a fundraiser.

“Jenny is very supportive of us as she always is,” said Annmarie McAnany, president of the SSF, about the Characters effort. “She’s got the community in mind and it’s all about the kids. We’re very thankful what they do and have done for us.”

Jenny Kirby said that local scholarships are just the kind of effort her restaurant tries to support.

“Anything we do, we try to keep it local,” said Kirby, who helps run the popular local restaurant along with her family. Jenny’s husband Dennis Kelleher works the bar and her sister Dionne Acton and husband Tommy help run the restaurant. Kirby’s niece Laura Acton also works at Characters.

Characters sponsors a Little League baseball team in Tuxedo and the Characters men’s softball team, comprised of players from Sloatsburg and Tuxedo, won the 2012 Vincent Crotty Memorial Softball Tournament.

Characters also sponsored a fundraiser in support of the UMC Sloatsburg Food Pantry that turned out a lot of local support and raised some $400 dollars.

“It brought a lot of customers that I’d never seen before,” said Kirby about the Food Pantry fundraiser. “A lot of new faces, which was exciting. It was a really good cause and they’re right across the street. It was nice to see the community come out.”

McAnany said Characters’ solid support of the Scholarship Fund is one of the ways the group will grow scholarships — it gets the word out to residents about the fund and also shows other businesses that investing in local causes works. More support, she said, eventually translates into bigger and better scholarships for Sloatsburg students.

The Evening of Excellence awards dinner also marks a turning point in the school year as Monday is the last day of regular classes for Suffern High School students. From here on out, the final weeks will be filled with tests and concerts and end of school activities.

Photos: Jenny Kirby behind the bar at Characters Restaurant and Bar. Jenny Kirby with her niece Laura Acton.