On Dec. 18, Huron River Veterans of Foreign Wars Post #4434 honored two students from McBride Middle School as winners of the 2017-2018 Patriot’s Pen Essay titled “America’s Gift to my Generation” Contest.
The post also honored two students, one from Belleville High School and one from the Canton Preparatory High School, as the post’s winners for the 2017-2018 Voice of Democracy Essay titled “American History: Our Hope for the Future” Contest. The program is chaired by Post member Cornell Anton. This year’s contest resulted in more than 60 finalist essays being considered before the winners were selected.
The VFW has an annual nationwide program that provides the opportunity for students in grades 6-8 to compete in the Patriot’s Pen essay contest which begins on the local VFW Post level. Winners are selected from each local Post to participate in a district level competition with the winner advancing to the department or state level. The end result is the state level winners receive a free trip to Washington D.C. to compete for more than $50,000 in awards, with the national winner receiving a check for $5,000.
This is in addition to the awards they will have won on the local, district and state levels. On Dec. 18, Kylie Potter and Elizabeth Russell from McBride Middle School were honored as the Post’s Patriot’s Pen Essay Winners. The two received monetary awards and certificates from Post 4434 and advanced to the district level.
The VFW also has an annual nationwide program that provides for students in grades 9-12 to compete in the Voice of Democracy essay contest where the local winners advance on to the national level in Washington D.C., just as the Patriot’s Pen winners did. The department/state winners compete for a share of the $2.2 million in educational scholarships and awards with the first-place winner receiving a $30,000 scholarship.
On Dec. 18, Post #4434 honored Krupa Patel from Canton Preparatory High School and Noah Copeland from Belleville High School as the post’s winners in the Voice of Democracy Contest. The two received a monetary award and certificates and advanced to the district level.
On Jan. 6, our four local winners and their families, along with members of VFW Post #4434 gathered at the Hubert-Fortiers-O’Grady VFW Post 345 in Redford Township for the VFW District #4 awards banquet. Twenty-six Patriot’s Pen Winners and 18 Voice of Democracy Winners were honored with certificates before the district winners were announced.
When the district winners for the Patriot’s Pen were announced, Elizabeth Russell was selected as the district’s second-place winner. She was awarded a check and certificate and McBride Middle School received a monetary award. Sadly, neither of our Voice of Democracy Winners were selected as district winners.
Our community needs to understand that these two contests are nothing to laugh at, the competition is extremely competitive, and our winners, along with those whose essays made it to the final review on the local level, did an outstanding job in putting their essays together. Also, it should be noted that the 60-plus finalists were only about half of the total essays that were reviewed prior to the selection of the finalists.
Elizabeth’s, Kylie’s, Krupa’s and Noah’s essays were fantastic attention-grabbers, that were well thought-out and constructed. Post #4434 is very proud of those who participated in the 2017-2018 contests and looks forward to the Annual 2018-2019 contests which will begin late in August 2018. Mr. Anton did an outstanding job in overseeing this year’s program for the post.
Robert Krouse, Commander
VFW Post #4434