Foreign wars vets name winners of essay contest
Daniela Vazquez
Staff writer
12-1-2016
- PLEASANT—The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 9276 of Mt. Pleasant announced the winners of two annual essay contests on Monday, Nov. 21.
The first contest is called Patriot’s Pen and is open to all sixth to eighth-grade students in Sanpete. The second is a Voice of Democracy audio essay contest for grades nine through 12.
Post Commander David Tucker presented students with their prizes and certificates at each of their respective schools.
Elizabeth Allred won $100 for first-place. Second place went to BreiLynn Lund who won $50. Kyle Morris won $25 for third place. All three students attend Spring City Elementary.
Avery Briggs won the $300 first place prize and will move on to the district level with the possibility of earning a spot at the national level.
Catherine Lund received the $100, second place spot. Both students are seniors at North Sanpete High School.
Allred and Briggs will compete at the district level on Dec. 8.
Each year the VFW administers two essay contests nationwide to promote literacy and patriotism among America’s young people, and as a way to give back to the communities that support the local VFW posts.
This year the theme for the Patriot’s Pen contest was “The America I Believe In.” Students in this contest were instructed to write a 300-400 word essay to the local post where it was judged against all other local entries. The winning contestants move on to the national level, and the grand prize is $5,000 and a trip to the nation’s capitol.
The theme for older students competing in the audio essay contest was “My Responsibility to America.” It is administered similarly to the written essay contest, but this year the national grand prize is $30,000.
The VFW Post 9276 says they are happy to involve students from Sanpete in the two contests and want to give gratitude to the community and thanks to the parents, teachers, counselors and administrators who encouraged the students to participate in the patriotic contest.
They also said they want to thank each student who put forth the effort to write or record an essay.
