Bainville Student Receives Patriot’s Pen Honors
Proud Of Country
Bainville students gathered for an assembly last week to salute eighth-grader Janae Wheeler’s accomplishments in the VFW Patriot’s Pen essay contest this year.
Randy Kreps, VFW District 5 and VFW Post 4018 commander, announced that the Bainville student earned first place for the post, first place for the district and second place at the department or state level. District 5 features northeastern Montana including the communities of Sidney, Plentywood, Circle, Glasgow and Malta.
“It’s pretty good to go that far,” Kreps said of Wheeler’s second-place showing in the state. For the honors, Wheeler received $200 at the post level, $100 at the district level and $200 more at the department level. The Patriot’s Pen contest has sixth-eighth grade students write a 350-400 word essay. This year’s topic was “My Voice in America’s Democracy.”
VFW officials were thankful that Bainville’s English teacher Sarah Morales assigned each of her eighth-grade students to provide an essay for the contest. Those students were presented a small award from the VFW during last week’s assembly.
“Every one was a good essay,” Kreps said.
Kreps was accompanied by Plentywood VFW members Russ Samuelson and Hal Babb for the presentation. Each shared their military experience with the students. Kreps served in the U.S. Air Force for 20 years including performing air maintenance for 15 years. Samuelson was on duty in Vietnam for eight and a half months. He said he received excellent electronics training. Babb served in the U.S. Air Force and became a fire prevention specialist in Maine.
Babb told students that the military offers a lot of opportunities if they are interested. They should check into all branches of the military to determine the best fit.
Julie Kreps of the Montana VFW Auxiliary explained the organization’s primary goal is to support veterans. She is the chair in Montana for the Buddy Poppy program and VFW National Home project. To celebrate the home project’s 100th anniversary, she urged that 100 quilts be made in Montana to be donated to the home.
The essay submitted by Wheeler included the following: “My voice in democracy matters. I’ve grown up in a heavily patriotic household. My grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins have all served in the military. I have learned greatly how to speak my voice from them.
“Growing up I was taught my rights at a young age. When I was young, my uncle and my cousin would talk about the latest politics, which I always listened to. In those conversations they would talk about the amendments and how they feel their rights were taken. In the third grade, my family sat me down and taught me my rights and why I have them.
“Growing with my family’s beliefs has always taught me how to be kind, share, and help those in need, and still now, we would spend our time volunteering and helping others, and our planet’s needs. Doing that I grew up learning a lot of political opinions and stories about wars and people serving their country from the people we were helping. I would speak back, sharing my story, my family, and my beliefs in our democracy.
“In my life I had a grandpa that passed recently who was in the military. Seeing his service, stood up, and used his voice for good and for our country, made me want to get involved and make and make an impact using my knowledge to better our world. I’m involved in many organizations that speak and teach our country’s rights, bringing my beliefs that this generation’s youth is going to have a very strong impact on our democracy.
“As a very talkative person, I’ve learned to speak my truth, speak out and get my voice heard. I take action and don’t let others’ opinions affect my standards and my principles. In all aspects of my life, I’ve strived to succeed, whether I’m cleaning up our town, or if I’m out at the senior citizen center listening to veterans or family members who have been there. I’ll share my opinion knowing I have the right to freedom of speech, I’ll go out and be involved in politics using my voice, my rights and the freedom this country has given me.”
