NMS Student Earns RespecTeen Honors

By Tanjua Damon

Lauren Kotwicki wrote a letter (see below) about something that affects her life on a daily basis for the RespecTeen Speak for Yourself letter-writing contest. She wrote about diabetes.

Lauren is an eighth grader at Newtown Middle School. Her letter was selected from nearly 10,000 written by seventh and eighth graders from across the nation. Although Lauren did not receive the grand prize of a trip to Washington, D.C., she did earn a $50 savings bond for having the most outstanding letter from her congressional district, District 5.

“I wrote about more funding for diabetes research,” Lauren said. “I talked about how I think it could help prevent other diseases.”

Lauren has been living with Type One diabetes for at least the last five years. She has to have insulin injections twice daily. She also has to keep her blood sugar regular throughout the day.

“It affects me daily,” she said. “I think it’s important and a lot of people suffer from it.”

When Lauren found out she had been a top recipient from her district to receive a $50 savings bond, she was ecstatic.

“I was really hyper,” she said. “I was really excited. I was glad I could help a lot of people think about diabetes.”

Ron Chivinski, the eighth grade social studies teacher who had his students write a letter as part of an assignment, but not necessarily for the contest, was glad that Lauren took the assignment as far as entering the competition.

“I feel extremely proud of Lauren,” Mr Chivinski said. “She wrote a very powerful letter, but more important it was from her heart.”

The assignment for the students in Mr Chivinski’s class was to write about an issue that affected people both nationally and locally. He left it up to the students whether or not they wanted to enter the writing contest.

Lauren admits she was a bit nervous about entering the contest because of who was going to see her letter.

“You want to say everything perfect,” she said. “And you want to get everything clear.”

Lauren said she was glad that she wrote her letter. She encouraged more people to write to their congressmen about issues they feel are important.

“Write. You can make a difference,” Lauren said. “One person really can make a difference.”