North Olmsted VFW 7647 Auxiliary president Pat Straley (right) and treasurer Ann Griss present 8th grade students Marcella Pfaff and Mario Blazevic with a certificate and monetary award.
Each year more than 132,000 students in grades 6-8 enter the VFW’s Patriot’s Pen youth essay contest. The national first-place winner wins $5,000 and an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C. The first-place winner from each state competes for national awards totaling $54,500, with each first-place state winner receiving a minimum of $500 at the national level.
The essay contest encourages young minds to examine America’s history, along with their own experiences in modern American society, by drafting a 300- to 400-word essay, expressing their views based on a patriotic theme chosen by the VFW Commander-in-Chief. This year’s theme was “The America I Believe In.”
All 8th grade American History students at Rocky River Middle School took part this contest in October, which was sponsored by the North Olmsted VFW, Post 7647. The essays of 14 students were selected for local competition and 2 earned special recognition. VFW 7647 Auxiliary president Pat Straley and treasurer Ann Griss visited Rocky River Middle School on December 5, 2016 to award certificates to the students whose essays were selected and a monetary award to Marcella Pfaff and Mario Blazevic, who were overall winners in the district.
Pat Straley told the students that “These were awesome essays and it was a hard job to pick the winters.” Ms. Straley also shared with American History teachers Ken Laposky and Terry Lambert that she was very impressed with the quality of writing and the creative ways students had of approaching the essay topic.
The essays that won the district-level will be sent on to the regional competition.