Jared Schmeltzer
Reporter
Merrill VFW post 1638 hosted their annual Voice of Democracy Banquet on Saturday night, Feb. 8, at Les & Jim’s Lincoln Lanes.
The night began with a dinner and would later transition to an award ceremony, where the VFW recognized the top 10 Patriot Pen contest winners. Also recognized Saturday evening, was Kate Goodrich Elementary Art teacher, Mrs. Kim Sample, for winning the 7th District Teacher of the Year award.
Mrs. Sample placed third place as the Wisconsin Teacher of the Year
The Patriot’s Pen is an essay written each year by students grades 6-8, with the theme for this year being “What Makes America Great?”.
At the banquet, the Merrill VFW recognized the top ten essay writers from Merrill schools, with the students also earning cash prizes.
The top ten Merrill essay writers include: Dakota Brown- 1st Place (Prairie River Middle School), Claire Duley- 2nd Place (St. John Lutheran School), Maddox Lammerding- 3rd place (Prairie River Middle School), Sophie Wendorf- 4th Place (Trinity Lutheran School), Olivia Barker- 5th Place (Trinity Lutheran School), Mia Smith- 6th Place (St. John Lutheran School), Lily Dallman- 7th Place (St. John Lutheran School), Emily Wiesneski- 8th Place (St. John Lutheran School), Gage Weber- 9th Place (New Testament Christian Academy) and Amelia White- 10th Place (St. Francis Xavier Catholic School).
The Merrill VFW also gave special recognition to Mark Bares of Les & Jim’s, for allowing the VFW to host their events at Lincoln Lanes each year.