Students from J.C. Booth Middle, Rising Starr Middle and Bennett’s Mill Middle schools wrote about their ideas of democracy as participants in the 2007 Patriot’s Pen Essay Contest.

The contest, sponsored annually by the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) in Peachtree City, Post 9949, gives students in grades 6-8 attending public, private, parochial or home school an opportunity to express their opinion on a patriotic theme and improve their writing skills while competing for awards. This year’s theme was “Why I am an American Patriot.”

Four Fayette County School System students won awards in the competition. Taylor Smith of Rising Starr and Elyssa Clayton of Bennett’s Mill tied for first place and Holly Gibbs and Gregory Pemu, both from J. C. Booth, tied for third place. The first place students each received $200 U.S. Savings Bonds with the third place students each receiving $100 U.S Savings Bonds.

All four essays were submitted to the District 6 competition where Elyssa and Holly both placed first and received an additional $200 U.S. Savings Bond and Taylor took third and was awarded a $100 U.S. Savings Bond.

Approximately 134 students submitted essays for this year’s competition. This is the eighth year the Peachtree City VFW has sponsored the contest.

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