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Excellent Essays: SWCS Students Sweep VFW Patriot Pen Contest

Josephine Buttafarro, Patriot’s Pen essay contest winner from Southwestern Middle School, reads her award-winning essay before family, friends, teachers and program participants, with English Language Arts teacher Lucia Guarnieri looking on. P-J photos by Christopher Blakeslee

For some Southwestern Central School District students, the pen is indeed mightier than the sword.

Six Southwestern Middle School students helped the district sweep all the top place finisher positions in the VFW’s local Patriot’s Pen Essay Writing Contest. An awards ceremony was held recently in the Southwestern Middle School auditorium.

“Within our region, we are able to advance six students to the next level,” said William Johnston, VFW Post 52 commander. “All six students who were picked for advancement are from the Southwestern Central School District this year.”

Johnston said, in total four other schools participated in this year’s contest.

“This year we had entries from 85 to 90 students. Southwestern, Jamestown (public schools), Frewsburg (Central) and the Chautauqua Christian Academy participated this year, and the students had to draft an essay with a theme entitled, ‘My Voice in America’s Democracy?'”

Commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars John W. Tiffany Post, No. 52 William Johnston reads the results of the Patriot’s Pen Essay Contest on Friday at Southwestern Central School Middle School, located at 600 Hunt Road.

Winners are: First place, Josephine Buttafarro – S100; second place, Giovanna E. Damon – $75; third place, Mason J. Brandi – $50; fourth place, Tessa Rounds – $25; fifth place, Thomas Haskell – $25; and sixth place, Jaxsyn T. Patterson – $25. Buttafaro said she comes from a long line of military veterans, and that this contest was challenging and rewarding at the same time.

The VFW’s Patriot Pen Program is conducted nationwide. Program participation is open to any sixth- through eighth-graders.

Johnston said that the students had been working on their essays since September and that at the state and national levels, the program winner will receive a scholarship totaling $35,000.

Additionally, according to vfw.org, more than 68,000 sixth through eighth grade students participate each year in the writing contest, vying for $1 million in prize money and scholarships across the nation. The essay contest encourages young minds to examine America’s history, along with their own experiences in modern American society, by drafting a 300- to 400-word essay, expressing their views based on a patriotic theme chosen by the national VFW’s Commander-in-Chief.

Johnston thanked the SWCS English Language Arts teachers for their dedication and leadership. Teachers who helped program participants include Darin Beckerink, Lucia Guarnieri, Shane Kellogg, Diane LaGrega, Kim Pannes and Greg Lauer, middle school principal.

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