{"id":30071,"date":"2023-12-21T20:41:26","date_gmt":"2023-12-22T03:41:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-county-students-win-patriots-pen-and-voice-of-democracy-essay-contests\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:09:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:09:57","slug":"montezuma-county-students-win-patriots-pen-and-voice-of-democracy-essay-contests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-county-students-win-patriots-pen-and-voice-of-democracy-essay-contests\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma County students win Patriot\u2019s Pen and Voice of Democracy essay contests"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image naviga-align-left alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=ae81b44c-2139-5056-839a-d3dd32c9f9ac&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2667\" alt=\"Dolores sophomore Kacey Schmittel won the Voice of Democracy essay contest. (Kendra Schmittel\/Courtesy Photo)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Dolores sophomore Kacey Schmittel won the Voice of Democracy essay contest. (Kendra Schmittel\/Courtesy Photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, the Montezuma County Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5231 announced the results of the Patriot\u2019s Pen and Voice of Democracy results for the VFW post.<\/p>\n<p>The judges did their evaluations online in early November and chose the winners based on the proficiency of the essays.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey expressed that they enjoyed the process very much,\u201d said John Davis, VFW adjutant and quartermaster.<\/p>\n<p>Patriot\u2019s Pen had 10 entries from Lighthouse Christian Academy, according to Davis, and Voice of Democracy had 69 entries from various schools across Montezuma County.<\/p>\n<p>Davis said Dolores schools had the largest number of applicants with 64.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe thank those schools who encouraged their students to participate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Students who won the awards, one Patriot\u2019s Pen winner and five Voice of Democracy winners, advanced to district-level contests. Judging for districts finished on Dec. 15, and two winners from Durango advanced to state.<\/p>\n<p>The winner of the Voice of Democracy in Post 5231 was sophomore Kacey Schmittel. Seco<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image naviga-align-left alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=8cffbe0c-9958-5554-8963-21f5b23326dc&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"1399\" height=\"1865\" alt=\"Julianne Vega placed 2nd in the Voice of Democracy essay contest. (Juan Vega\/Courtesy Photo)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Julianne Vega placed 2nd in the Voice of Democracy essay contest. (Juan Vega\/Courtesy Photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>nd place went to sophomore Julianne Vega, and third to junior Elizabeth Sparks.<\/p>\n<p>Schmittel, who is from Dolores High School, will receive $200, a plaque and a certificate. Vega, who is also from Dolores High School, will receive $175 and a certificate. Sparks, who is from Lighthouse Christian Academy, will receive $150 and a certificate.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image naviga-align-left alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=ec44c396-5700-5763-b659-8acf7af87182&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2063\" alt=\"Lighthouse Christian Academy\u2019s sixth grader Summer Lovett won the Patriot\u2019s Pen essay contest. (Sarah Lovett\/Courtesy photo)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Lighthouse Christian Academy\u2019s sixth grader Summer Lovett won the Patriot\u2019s Pen essay contest. (Sarah Lovett\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Lighthouse Christian Academy\u2019s sixth grader Summer Lovett was the winner of the Patriot\u2019s Pen contest and will receive $100, a plaque and a certificate.<\/p>\n<p>The theme for this year\u2019s Patriot\u2019s Pen was, \u201cHow are you inspired by America?\u201d and the theme for the Voice of Democracy was, \u201cWhat are the greatest attributes of our democracy?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In Patriot\u2019s Pen, students are judged on knowledge of the theme, theme development and clarity of ideas. Voice of Democracy is judged on originality, content and delivery, according to Davis.<\/p>\n<div class=\"naviga-pdf-embed\"><iframe class=\"article-pdf\" src=\"https:\/\/dur-prod-public-pdfs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/YSvr4bybzJUxIQkzYirAsLPU9AI.pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:500px;border:1px solid #ddd\" loading=\"lazy\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dur-prod-public-pdfs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/YSvr4bybzJUxIQkzYirAsLPU9AI.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Summer Lovett\u2019s Winning Patriot\u2019s Pen Essay (Download PDF)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/p><\/iframe>\n<p class=\"naviga-pdf-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dur-prod-public-pdfs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/YSvr4bybzJUxIQkzYirAsLPU9AI.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Summer Lovett\u2019s Winning Patriot\u2019s Pen Essay<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cWe want to thank the schools for allowing us to bring this essay contest to the schools,\u201d Davis told <em id=\"emphasis-65b795012347b755d4718421c0f6440d\">The Journal.<\/em> \u201cIt\u2019s meant to be a character development thing, where in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades you learn how to develop a theme on paper and then be able to do the same thing only with public speaking with the VOD to help students develop their abilities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Davis also said adding these accomplishments to a resume, college application or military academy application is something that could help set students apart.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image naviga-align-left alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=c42ab53c-1ea2-5469-9264-1c884dfb819f&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"218\" height=\"274\" alt=\"Dolores High School\u2019s Michael Nielson won the Teacher of the Year award. (Dolores School District)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Dolores High School\u2019s Michael Nielson won the Teacher of the Year award. (Dolores School District)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Teacher of the Year entry Michael Nielson of Dolores High School was also advanced to the next round. Nielson is a social studies teacher.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe has shown what it means to help in the development of the youth of America,\u201d Davis said.<\/p>\n<p>Prizes will be awarded at district, state and nationals. The national prize for Patriot\u2019s Pen is $5,000 for first and the first place prize for Voice of Democracy is $35,000.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe hope that we grew this program from last year and hope we can grow it again next year,\u201d Davis said. \u201cIf you are a student, teacher, parent or grandparent, please consider the entry of your student. These programs are meant to give students the experience and encourage their growth in writing and public speaking skills.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The contests are open to any American student who attends a charter, private or public school. Home-schooled students are also welcome to participate.<\/p>\n<p>More information can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vfw.org\/community\/youth-and-education\/youth-scholarships\" id=\"link-78a9e02dcf78b87be2ca54b9d46591d0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">online <\/a>at www.vfw.org\/community\/youth-and-education\/youth-scholarships or by sending an email to <a href=\"mailto:vfwpost5231@gmail.com\">vfwpost5231@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Schmittel wins Voice of Democracy and Summer Lovett wins Patriot\u2019s Pen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,38,155,28,60,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-30071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-dolores-high-school","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30071"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80953,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30071\/revisions\/80953"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30071"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=30071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}