On Wednesday, January 8th, six local students were awarded by the Redfield Veterans of Foreign Wars at the American Legion Post 92 in Redfield for their Voice of Democracy essays on “What Makes America Great.”
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Six local students selected as Voice of Democracy essay contest winners
By Shiloh Appel
On Wednesday, January 8th, six local students were awarded by the Redfield Veterans of Foreign Wars at the American Legion Post 92 in Redfield for their Voice of Democracy essays on “What Makes America Great.”
The Voice of Democracy essay contest sees nearly 40,000 high school students from across the country enter to win a share of the millions of dollars in educational scholarships and incentives awarded through the VFW each year. This year, Olivia Owens took first place in the Redfield School District, Abby Evans took second, and Alison Larson took third. In the Northwestern School District, Megan Nash took first place at the post level as well as the district level, Meadow Remily took second, and Sawyer Styles took third. Nash will go on to compete at the state level on the 28th of January in Pierre. If she places at the state level, she will go on to compete at the national level for the chance to win a $30,000 scholarship paid directly to the winner’s choice of university, college or vocational/technical school.
Meanwhile, during the January 8th presentation, each of the six post-level winners read their essays to those in attendance. In Owens’ essay, she talked about how the words “opportunities” and “resilience” make America great. She gave credit to her grandfathers that served in Vietnam and the Korean War and her father, who served as an army medic.
“The grandfather that served in Vietnam was part of a special team of people that would do search and destroy missions, or also called tunnel rats,” said Owens. “The other grandfather, who was in the Korean War, was a missile technician that protected America from Russian bombers…I am so proud to be their granddaughter and I hope I will grow to be as brave as them.”