The Jefferson VFW Post #9599 held an assembly Wednesday at the Greene County Middle School gym to announce the winners of this year’s Patriot Pen contest.

Eighth grader Avery Walker placed first at the local level and won $50 from the Jefferson VFW. This year’s theme was “America’s Greatest Gift to Our Generation” and Walker describes what she focused on in her essay.

“I said that the main three (points) were: our freedom of religion, freedom of speech and pursuit of happiness. I think religion was my favorite one to talk about because I feel like that is one of the most important parts of probably the overall greatest gift in my opinion.”

Second place went to Chad Maston and third place was Chelsea Richardson.  Language Arts Teacher Tammy Brophy was also named Teacher of the Year for her help and support of the contest for the last five years. Walker’s essay now goes onto the district competition. Last year, Walker was second place at the local level and first place in districts. The essay contest has four total levels including state and national, where middle school students can win $7,000. Walker talks about her favorite part of doing these types of competitions.

“My favorite part of doing competitions like this is just being able to express myself. And I really like just the freedom that this contest actually allows us. For one it gets us involved in the community and it’s really fun to just know that the gratification that you get after putting so much hard work into a paper that you write.”

Post Commander Don Ihnken and Adjutant Kenny Arbuckle were on hand to present the certificates.