The Putnam Hill Chapter of the NSDAR announced its chapter winners for the 2016-17 American History Essay Contest sponsored nationally by the Daughters of the American Revolution.
First place winner Annabel Zhou (5th grade) is from North Mianus, as is the second-place winner, Lucy Li. Max Meissner (8th grade) is from Brunswick, as are Graham Lodge and Max Chaney, who tied for second place. The two first place winners advance to competition at the state level.
This year’s essay topic for 5th through 8th graders was titled “Celebrating a Century: America’s National Parks.” Students were asked to write journal entries as if they were visiting one of the 58 national parks, describing their chosen location and discussing why it was established as a national park and what makes it one of our national treasures. Established by Congress in 1916, the National Park Service manages approximately 84.4 million acres of national parkland.
The chapter received submissions from 93 Greenwich students. The essays were judged by an independent panel of three who generously donated their time and expertise: Anne Drake, a retired English teacher; Lettitia Long, a reading specialist; and Valerie Austyn, a local writer and storyteller.
Honorable Mentions were awarded to International School at Dundee 5th grade students Alessia Chiesara, Helena Ruth Kennedy, Sahar Shahib, and Elizabeth Flintoff, who collaborated on the essay, and were noted by the judging panel for their originality and imaginative writing.
Honorable Mention winners from Brunswick were Andy Aube and Charlie Garland. Also winning praise from the judging panel is Honorable Mention winner Bailey Getlik from Greenwich Catholic School.
The contest is open to all students in grades 5, 6, 7 and 8 in public, private, parochial and home schools, and is contest is conducted without regard to race, religion, sex or national origin, the chapter reports.
The awards ceremony was held March 7 at the historic Knapp Tavern Museum at Putnam Cottage. In addition to small prizes for all 12 of the winners, each of their schools will receive a donation from the Putnam Hill Chapter for books for their school libraries in recognition of their students’ achievements.
