Take Me To Post Comment Form As the End of the 2010-2011 School Year is now here, time has come to start looking forward to the 2011-2012 school year. As the Educational Programs Chairman for The Veterans of Foreign Wars of Georgia’s Second District, I would like to announce the themes to the public that the Veterans of Foreign Wars' Patriot’s Pen Youth Essay Competition for students who will be in grades six through eight and The Voice of Democracy Oratorical Essay Competition for students who will be in the ninth through twelve.

With the summer, comes ample opportunity for our students to keep their communication skills sharpened and to do some patriotic writing in order to try and win themselves up to a $10,000 U.S. Savings Bond for the Patriot’s Pen; or up to a $30,000 scholarship for the Voice of Democracy.

The Patriot’s Pen promotes the development of a given theme and writing a 300-400 word essay. The Theme for 2011-2012 is: ”Are You Proud of Your Country?”

The Voice of Democracy also promotes the development of a given theme, but this program also adds the skill of public speaking, as the essay has to be recorded and be between 3 to 5 minutes in length. The Theme for 2011-2012 is: “Is There Pride in Serving in Our Military?”

And lastly there is the National Citizenship Education Teachers Award Program designed to recognize teachers who teach their students about patriotism and Americanism in their classrooms. The Program allows each school to submit one teacher who teaches patriotism and/or Americanism to their students. There are three different grade levels for submission [Elementary (K – 5), Middle (6 – 8), and High School (9 – 12)]. Entries may also be submitted by people outside of the school (Parents and the general public) who know of the teacher’s patriotic work.

For your High School Student to obtain a fillable PDF entry form and official rules for the Voice of Democracy Competition at: http://www.vfw.org/Community/Voice-of-Democracy/

For your Middle School Student to obtain a fillable PRF entry form and official rules for the Patriot’s Pen at http://www.vfw.org/Community/Patriot-s-Pen/

And to obtain a nomination form for the National Citizenship Education Teachers Award, with the detailed rules at: http://www.vfw.org/Community/Teacher-of-the-Year/

The Essay Programs are open to ALL students (Public School, Private School or Home School) residing in the county; and the Teacher’s Award is open to any Public or Private School Teacher who teaches within the county. We kindly ask that each school or Home School Association conduct a preliminary judging of all entries for their entity, and then forward one entry for every fifteen entries completed (or part thereof). The deadline for entries to be forwarded from the schools or Home School Association is 11:59 PM ET on October 31st. VFW Post 9143’s Essay Program Chairman is Joshua Lindsey and Teacher’s Awards Chairman is Richard Knight. Entries and questions about these programs should be addressed to the respective Chairman c/o VFW Post 9143, 1045 Dahlonega Highway, Cumming, Georgia 30040-4523.

Michael P. McMahon
District 2 Educational Programs Chairman