Legacy Academy student Reilly Blakeslee and her brother Logan Blakeslee, an Elizabeth High School student, need to plant a flag pole in their yard.
Thursday night, April 10th the Elbert County Republican Women awarded Reilly Blakeslee first place in their annual Patriotic Essay Middle School contest for her essay “The Freedom to Succeed”. Her brother Logan Blakeslee placed first in the High School Contest with his essay “The American Dream: Opportunity, Freedom, Optimism”.
Both received a United States flag from the Elbert Count Sheriff’s office and a Colorado state flag (that has flown over the Capitol in Denver) from State Representative Tim Dore. Representative Dore also presented certificates from the Capitol to the First, Second and Third place winners of both contests and letters of commendation to the remaining top ten essayists in both contests.
The High School First Place essayist also received the $1,000 Mary Rathbun Memorial Scholarship, donated in Mary’s memory by her husband Larry Durner and her sister Karen Marant.
Other winners of the Middle School Contest were: second place, McKenzie Smith (Big Sandy Middle School, Simla) and third place Peyton Baldwin (Legacy Academy). In the High School Contest, second place went to Ashley Baller (Ponderosa High School, Parker) and third place to Caleb Dotten (home school, Elizabeth).
For both Middle and High School Contests, the Elbert County Republican Women awarded $100 for First place, $50 for Second Place and $25 for Third Place.
The remaining Top 10 High School essayists were: Kimberly Peterson (Elizabeth High School), Connor Wills and Ryan Wills (Kiowa High School), Colten Trent and Menzi Spiller (Elbert High School), Hailey Edwards (Simla High School) and Julianna Dotten (home school).
The remaining Top Ten 10 Middle School essayists were: Delaney Kretsinger, Megan Frahm and Erin Shiely (Legacy), Sedona Levy, Allison Schieffer and Juan Gomez (Elbert Middle School), and Morris Richardson (Big Sandy Middle School).
The Elbert County Republican Women thanked the 21 Middle School students and 25 High School students who entered the contest by presenting each student with a “Your Are the American Dream” pin.
This non-political, nonpartisan essay contest is designed to encourage students to think and write about the privileges and responsibilities of American Citizenship. It is divided into two divisions: one for Middle School Students (6th through 8th grades) and another for High School students (9th through 12th grades). The 2014 essay contest’s topic was “The American Dream and How It Relates to You.”
The Republican Women will announce the topic for their 2015 Patriotic Essay contest in the fall of 2014.
Karen Shipper