Club announces essay contest

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By Mark Ambrogi

It’s time again for the Sertoma Club of Broad Ripple’s annual essay contest.

The club has sponsored the National Heritage Essay Contest for more than 30 years for sixth-grade students in public, private and parochial schools in the Greater Indianapolis area.

Tom Lange, the club’s publicity director, said about half of the club’s 108 members live in Carmel.

“We have about 15 to 20 members from Fishers, those are our two main areas,” Lange said.

Many of the classrooms from schools in those two area participate in the contests.

The Sertoma Club has a committee of 20 to 25 people that read the essays and judge them, Lange said.

The topic that the students address in their essays is the same as last year, “What Freedom Means to Me.” According to the club’s release, the Sertoma Club’s belief is that participation in the contest encourages students to better understand the founding principles of the United States and consider how those principles affect their lives today.

The 2013-14 winner was Carter Bailey from Carmel Middle School. His teacher was Cheri Boudouris.

“Freedom means being able to live and travel wherever I want,” Bailey wrote in his essay. “Nearly 60 years ago a 12-year-old African-American boy like my (grandpa) did not have the privilege. Fortunately, that is not the case today.”

Bailey received $375 for first place. The second-place grand prize winner, Kieran Thomas, also was from Carmel Middle School and earned $250. His teacher was Shannon Miller. The third-place finisher was Dexter King, St. Richard’s Episcopal School in Indianapolis. The students and their families along with the teachers were honored at a Sertoma luncheon in May.

At the annual luncheon, the three winners read their essay to the audience. The three each receive a plaque and certificate, a copy of the Bill of Rights and a monetary reward.

During the 2013-14 school year, there were more than 1,100 essays from 58 classrooms in 15 schools. Classroom winning essays were chosen by the committee from the three submitted by each classroom teacher. A total of 21 finalist essays were submitted for consideration as one of three grand prize winners.

The deadline for interested sixth-grade teachers to enter their classroom is Dec. 23. The teachers should contact Jerry Adams by e-mail [email protected]. The. 2015 luncheon is set for May 6 at the Knights of Columbus in Indianapolis.


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