New Prague VFW Post 5145 recently announced the winner and three honorable mentions for its essay contest. The participants are all students in Jill Bailey's seventh grade class and the essay theme was “How can I be a good American?” Orelia Slavik won the local contest and Annie Blaschko, Daniel Erickson, and Bella Web received honorable mention. Each of them will receive $30.
Also participating in the essay contest were Stephanie Way, Aiden Turbak, Cooper Kraus, Ryan Cameron, Maddie Schlink, Jasmine Fischer, Brady Hagendorn, Kaitlyn Wilson, Ella Clovtier, Ethan Flicek, Izzi Pumper, Brody Dvorak, Blake Durbin, Sophea Bessette, and Zoe Juncker. VFW members were grateful to all those who wrote an essay and they had a great time reading them and are very proud of them. Below is Slavik’s essay. “As an American there is so much we can do to show patriotism. For one we can sing the National Anthem. The last line in the song is “O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?” It is talking about our freedom that we have today and we owe it all to the Military and those who lost their lives fighting for our freedom. Because of them we can live without fear and we can feel safe when we go out, not all places have that sense of freedom.
My Dad was a paratrooper in the Army and I am very proud of him. People just like him risk their lives every day and we owe so much to them. We can do lots to...
To see more on this story pick up the March 24, 2022 print edition of The New Prague TImes.