Pottsboro Texas | November 19, 2017
Preston Trail Chapter, NSDAR Pottsboro, Texas awarded Miss Sienna Wideman, the winner of the NSDAR American History Essay Contest for the 2017 – 2018 school year, a bronze metal and a certificate. Miss Wideman came in with the high score on her essay. She was one of twenty one seventh graders in the Pottsboro ISD and Bells ISD which entered the contest. All participants received a Certificate of Participation Award. The essays were all evaluated by three local community judges to determine the winner. The judges this year were Carole Siebman, Dianne Connery and James Peercy.
This year’s essay contest was titled “Remembering World War 1: The War to End All Wars” in honor of the 100th anniversary of World War 1. The American History Essay Contest is offered annually to local school district students in grades fifth through eighth. This year, the American History Essay Contest Committee chairman, Mrs. Natalie Bauman of Pottsboro, and two chairpersons, Mrs. Carolyn Dexheimer of Bells and Margaret Alverson of Ector, worked diligently to make the essay contest a success
One student`s essay from each grade was chosen to represent their grade and locale. The winning essay is then escalated to district, state and ultimately, the national level. This is the first time our local schools have been offered the opportunity to participate, and Preston Trail Chapter NSDAR is excited to have the cooperation of teachers and schools, as well as the students of the Pottsboro and Bells School Districts. One teacher, in particular, Mrs. Mindy Hawthorne of Pottsboro Middle School, went the extra mile to put this into her curriculum and entered twenty students into the contest.
The students were given the title for the essay, a list of reference materials pertaining to the subject and the rules required to qualify for the contest. The scores were based on required information, interest and originality of the essay written. Congratulations to all the students that participated and good luck to Ms. Wideman in the next round of judging.
The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution was founded in 1890 to promote historic preservation, education and patriotism. Its members are descended from the patriots who won American independence during the Revolutionary War. With more than 177,000 members in approximately 3,000 chapters worldwide, DAR is one of the world’s largest and most active service organizations. DAR members are committed to volunteer service having served more than 12.5 million hours in communities throughout the world during the past three years. To learn more about the work of today’s DAR, visit www.DAR.org or connect with DAR on social media at facebook.com/TodaysDAR, twitter.com/TodaysDAR and youtube.com/TodaysDAR.