Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 308 and its Ladies Auxiliary recently announced that the Patriot’s Pen Essay Competition is open for local students through Friday, October 29.

The program was started in 1947, and the national program provides students in sixth through eighth grade the opportunity to express democratic ideas and principles. This year’s theme is “Why I Appreciate America’s Veterans.”

A panel of judges will decide the winner. Local judges this year are Greg VanAntwerp, Middle Gate Elementary School Principal Christopher Geissler, and Jim Solomon, pastor, New Hope Community Church.

Essays must be composed by students, typed in Microsoft Word, and e-mailed as an attachment no later than Wednesday, October 29, to their social studies teacher. Teachers will remove the student’s name from the document and assign each essay a code. Essays, with code, will be saved as a PDF. This ensures anonymity of the submission.

Only the teacher will have the list of student’s names and their code, according to VFW Post 308.

The PDF submissions will then be e-mailed by Friday, October 31, to VFW Post 308 Junior Vice Commander Walter Dolan, who will in turn forward the entries to the panel of judges for reading and grading.

Essays will be judged based upon knowledge, theme, and clarity.

The Post winner will go on to compete for the VFW District 1 title. The District 1 winner will go on to compete for the Connecticut title. The first-place winner from each state competes to win one of 46 national awards totaling $46,000.

The national first-place winner wins $5,000 and an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., in March.