Sertoma Freedom Week Essay Contest

The Sertoma Freedom Week Essay Contest was held Tuesday evening.

The ceremony took place at Trinity Lutheran Church. We spoke to Jerry Lavy, Co-Chair of the event who told us a little bit about the contest process.

“What we do is provide the copy of the Bill of Rights or the Constitution of the United States to all the 8th grade students in Muskingum County, which is about 1,120 this year, and we give them that information the first of January to do a 300 word essay, with the topic being, ‘My Freedoms and Responsibilities As A U.S. Citizen.”

Lavy says each school is allotted so many winners and the teachers then judge the essays and choose their favorites. Lavy told us the purpose and importance behind it.

“What it does is gets the students to write. So their writing abilities and also about studying of the U.S. Government–our government and how it was formed and what rights you have with the Bill of Rights or the constitution and it so happened to be this year it was the Bill of Rights.”

Each winner received $50 and the overall winner received and extra $100. The overall contest winner this year was West Muskingum middle schooler Hannah Riggle. That full list of the 29 winners can be found below:

Zanesville Middle School:
Haley Again
Madeline Foreman
Alexander Mealick
Alex Pinson
Brady Rutledge

Maysville Middle School:
Cassidy Adams
Clarice Hauge
Rylei Miller
Mackenzie Rine

West Muskingum Middle School:
Halina Dingo
Baylee Graham
Donnis Kent
Hannah Riggle*

Bishop Fenwick School:
Claire Creeks
Benjamin Jacoby

Tri-Valley Middle School:
Eric Allen
Chad Bell
Megan Hall
Sean Lacy
Savanna Moran

Philo Jr. High School:
Olivia Ickes
Karter Kaster
Alivia Worthy
Delaney Zimmerman

East Muskingum Middle School:
Avery Adams
Mitch Eubanks
Ashlyn Haury
Nazara Taylor

Franklin Local Community School:
LaTisha Seckman