Students author a pledge to veterans

Students at Coal City Middle School put pen to paper to convey their pledge to our veterans.

Patriots Pen, a program of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, is open to all sixth, seventh and eighth grade students who are asked to write a 300 to 400 word essay on a theme selected by the national commander. This year’s theme was, our pledge to our veterans.

St. Juvin Post 1336 sponsors the contest at the local level and works with middle school history teacher Jim Hitchcock to promote participation.

There were 225 essays submitted by Coal City students. Entries are judged and the selections forwarded on to the district contest.

Entries are judged at each VFW Post and the selections are then forwarded on to the district, state and national level. Each Post can submit one entry to the district for judging for each 15 entries submitted.

St. Juvin is one of 11 VFW Posts in District 18 and among them just five posts participated in the national essay contest.

In total there were 460 essays submitted to the district contest and the winners at that level advance to the state and national contests.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t get any that went to state this year,” said James “Hoppy” Phillips, Post 336 commander.

Phillips and several members of Post 1336 attended the Unit 1 Board of Education’s February meeting to honor the 15 students who’s essays were selected for district judging.

Those students were Ryland Clements, Leah Jensen, Emerson Koehn, Jaiden Leman, Jacob Munsterman, Abi Rose, Faith Horkavy, James Little, Grace Sitar, Kayla Kowalski, Cate Rush, Kory Lovell, Lilly Garrish, Kyla Stark and Jayla Reed.

Each of the students was presented with a certificate of participation and a power pack from Post 1336, and invited to take part in a pizza party put on by the district.

“I want to thank the VFW for offering this great opportunity and helping us as teachers offer a segway into patriotism and civics,” Hitchcock said.

“This is a great opportunity. Students worked hard and a lot of the time they worked on this paper wasn’t just in class it was outside of class. You read some of these papers and talk to the judges, it brings a tear to your eye,” Hitchcock said.

Phillips said the success of the essay program is due to the efforts of Hitchcock and the support of the school district and its staff.

“This is a good example of how good our teachers are in this community. When you read those essays it puts a little more faith in what our country is headed for,” Phillips said.

Along with Patriots Pen, Post 1336 pairs with the district on programs that teach intermediate school students flag history and high school students about military life during the Vietnam era.

Currently, the Post is supporting an art project to update the military photo wall at the high school and annually offers a college scholarship to a graduating senior.

“We do appreciate you allowing us in, because in some areas the schools do not allow the veterans to come in,” Phillips said.