Commander Larry Newman of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post #5653, announced the kick-off of this year’s VFW and its Ladies Auxiliary “Patriot’s Pen Essay Competition” and the audio “Voice of Democracy Scholarship Competition.”

Students in grades 6-8 in this area have the opportunity to compete in the VFW’s annual Patriot’s Pen competition and win thousands of dollars in U.S. Savings Bonds and a trip to be honored at the VFW and Ladies Auxiliary Community Service Conference. High school students are eligible for the Voice of Democracy competition and may win scholarships, a trip to Washington D.C. as well as dozens of other awards.

Students in both competitions begin by competing at the local Post level. Post winners advance to District. District winners compete in the state competition. The state winners of the Patriot’s Pen competition compete for more than $70,000 in U.S. Savings Bonds and an all-expenses paid trip to Washington D.C.

State winners of the Voice of Democracy competition will enjoy a four-day tour of Washington D.C. with winners from around the world. During the nearly 60 years the VFW and Ladies Auxiliary have been involved with Voice of Democracy, more than 7 million high school students have participated. Students compete by writing and then recording a three-to-five minute audio/essay expressing their views of this year’s patriotic theme Freedom’s Challenge. All state winners receive at least a $1,000 national scholarship and compete for the $25,000 first place award. A total of $145,000 in national scholarships is awarded to national finalists in addition to the scholarships and awards given at the preliminary levels of competition.

Each year, more than 130,000 6th through 8th grade students participate in the Patriot’s Pen Essay Competition. Students are invited to write a 300-400 world essay on a patriotic theme. This year’s theme is “Citizenship in America.” The deadline for student entries is Nov. 1.

Interested students and teachers should contact their local VFW Post #5653 by phone at 765-2168 or write to the post at P.O. Box 475 in Depoe Bay, Ore. 97341-0475.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 30th, 2006 at 12:24 pm and is filed under Education, Scholarship. Tags: Scholarship, Student. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.