Take Me To Post Comment Form I figure that I need to start getting out the word even earlier this year than last year, in hopes that the parents of our local students, who will be in the 6th through 12th grades in the 2010-2011 school year, will be more receptive than the Schools and School District in Forsyth County has been of wanting to have their children compete in nationwide educational contests. These contests are sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States (VFW) and the VFW's Department of Georgia, The Department's 2nd District and your local Post and Auxiliary # 9143 here in Cumming. With the students going to have an immense amount of free time over the next six months it would be an excellent time for them to try to win some money or a scholarship for their future.

Let me go into each of the Programs separately:

The Patriot's Pen Essay Contest gives Middle School (6th - 8th Grade) students the opportunity to express their opinion on a different annual patriotic theme while working on improving their theme development and writing skills, while they compete for worthwhile awards and prizes. Department (State) winners compete for $91,000 in U.S. Savings Bonds at the national level with the winner receiving a $10,000 U.S. Savings Bond in Washington, D.C. in April each year. The students are to write a 300-400 typewritten word essay on a subject that is published each spring for the upcoming year.
The 2010-2011 Patriot's Pen Theme is "Does Patriotism Still Matter?"

Created in 1947, the Voice of Democracy scholarship competition is a nationwide audio essay contest which High School Students write and then record a 3-5 minute (+/- 5 seconds) broadcast script on a different annual patriotic theme, competing for more than $3 million in total college scholarships and incentives. Department (State) winners are brought to Washington, D.C., in April to enjoy our nation's capital and compete for $148,000 in scholarships - first place receiving a $30,000 scholarship. The 2010-2011 Voice of Democracy Theme is "Does My Generation Have a Role in America’s Future?"

The National Association of Secondary School Principals has placed these programs on the NASSP National Advisory List of Contests and Activities for 2010-2011.

Every Middle and High School in Forsyth County will be given entry brochures once school starts (in the fall), which contains the official rules for the submission of entries. This competition is open to ALL Students in Forsyth County (Public School, Private School and Home Schooled). If you need an entry form and you attend any of the Schools in Forsyth County, you can wait and see your school's Language Arts Department chairperson, or you can obtain the entry forms, that can be filled out and printed, online at the following web addresses:
Patriot's Pen:
http://www.vfw.org/resources/pdf/PP Entry Form.pdf

Voice of Democracy:
http://www.vfw.org/resources/pdf/VOD Entry Form.pdf

All entries need to be submitted through your student's School or Home School Association, which needs to do a preliminary judging of the entries and forward one entry for every fifteen or part thereof to VFW Post 9143 before November 1st. Entries submitted after that date will not be accepted and disqualified, as will any entry that fail to meet the minimum or exceeds the maximum limits as listed above for length. This is not to punish the students work, but it is to ensure that the entries are uniform in length and allows for timely judging and forwarding of the winners to the next level of competition.

I hope that you will engage your children to participate in the competitions, and you will push your child's school to participate in these worthwhile programs as it promotes creative writing, theme development, writing principles and, for Voice of Democracy entrants, public speaking skills while promoting patriotism in our children.

Michael McMahon
District 2 Youth Essay Chairman
Department of Georgia
Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States