Essay Contest

Several months ago, I met with the 5th Grade students at South Park Elementary to discuss the importance of community involvement. During the discussion, I spoke about the many different and important roles that people play with regards to community leadership. I also talked about my role as an elected official and the role of our local government. At the end of the discussion, I challenged the kids to write and submit an essay to me about projects or ideas they would change, improve, or create if they were a Merriam City Councilmember.

On Friday, January 21, I met with the students for a second time to announce the winners of the contest. Needless to say, they were all very excited. It was an extremely hard decision to award the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners. It was obvious that all 25 students put forth a great deal of effort. They were thoughtful and creative, and provided a unique opportunity for us adults to learn how the kids view our community.

The 3rd Place winner was Victoria Delgado. Victoria was selected not only because she is a great writer, but her essay was very compassionate.

Victoria received:

A $25 Savings Bond from Brotherhood Bank
A plaque from Councilman Burks at City Council Meeting

The 2nd Place winner went to Katie Tillman. I enjoyed reading Katie's essay and found myself thinking, "Why didn't I think of that?" Katie wrote about having a voting center where kids could have a say about important issues. She suggested that there be a "voting box" to make Merriam a better place. As a result of reading her essay, I plan to discuss the voting box idea with the local schools. I think it would be great to have a process for the kids to voice their opinions and thoughts about the community.

Katie was awarded:

A Plaque
$50 Savings Bond from Brotherhood Bank

Darrien Richmond was awarded 1st Place. Darrien is an extremely talented young man who had many great thoughts about the needs of the city, and how he could help out. Darrien wrote about having a bike park to provide a positive recreational activity. My favorite however, was that Darrien suggested that a Talent Show be held to raise money for the homeless. He suggests that the first place winner of the talent show could win a prize...45 dollars. Where he came up with that amount, I don't know!

Darrien won:

A Plaque
$75 Savings Bond from Brotherhood Bank
$50 Prize Pack from Lee Jeans

All the kids that participated in the event received a t-shirt, as well as an opportunity to submit their name to win an autographed photo of pop singer Avril Levigne!

I would like to sincerely thank the following people and businesses for their support. Without the following people, this contest would not have been possible.

Karen Metz, Principal, South Park Elementary
Kari Bronner, 5th Grade Teacher, South Park Elementary
Randy Holt, 5th Grade Teacher, South Park Elementary
Jennifer Johnson, Lee Jeans--Jennifer was extremely important to the success of this project. Not only did Lee Jeans provide a $50 dollar prize pack, they also were kind enough to design the graphics for the t-shirt
Beth Holtwick, Brother Hood Bank--Brotherhood Bank provided $150 worth of Savings Bonds!
Glenda from Pro-K Graphics--provided and printed all the t-shirts for the contest
Burks Autographs--provided the signed autograph of Avril Levigne

And most importantly, all of the 5th Graders at South Park for showing everyone how talented they are!