The Mitchell VFW Post announced the winners of this year’s local Patriot Pen and Voice of Democracy contests. From Sanborn Central, Weston White won first place in the Patriot Pen contest, Kelly Wilson earned second place, and Ledoux Bracha claimed third place. In the Voice of Democracy essay contest, Sanborn Central’s winner was Hudson Fouberg.

For the Patriot Pen contest, students write a 350-word essay. This year’s theme was “How are you inspired by America?” Sanborn Central’s submissions are scored by the Mitchell VFW Post. The winning essay then moves on to the VFW District level. Winners from the district level across the state are scored at the VFW department level, and finally, those winners compete at the VFW national level. White’s first place win qualifies his essay to move onto the district level.

For the Voice of Democracy, students have to write an original three-to-five-minute audio essay on the VFW-provided theme. This year’s theme was “What are the greatest attributes of our Democracy?” Each student’s submission must include the recorded and written versions of their essays. Winners of the local post level then move on to the district level, then the state level, and finally, the national level. Fouberg’s first place award qualifies her essay to move on to the district VFW level.

The four winners, White, Fouberg, Wilson, and Bracha, have been invited to the VFW’s Dec. 12 meeting at 7:25 p.m. to be presented with their awards.

…See a picture in this week’s issue of the Sanborn Weekly Journal!

The Woonsocket School has implemented a new program to encourage students to exhibit strong character traits. The program called HAWKS, which stands for Helping All Willing Kids Succeed, is based on a teacher-nomination system and helps to choose a student of the month in three age brackets each month of the school year.

The process is simple. Any staff member can nominate a student with an explanation of why they chose that student as a nominee for student of the month. Students are chosen in the three groups according to grades K-4, 5-8 and 9-12. Then, at the end of the month, the names are put into a hat for each age group, and one is drawn as the student of the month. The kindergarten through fourth and fifth through sixth winners get to eat at a special table setup by the HAWKS committee one day a week for the whole month. The high school student of the month gets to park in the special parking spot for the month. Each winner also gets a free T-shirt with the sponsors listed on it, and at the end of each month, all the nominees have a little party and get to enjoy a smoothie from The Muddy Cup. 

The HAWKS committee is made up of teachers from each grade level and one administrator. The committee was created as part of the “school improvement plan.” Their hopes are that this program will not only improve students’ behavior in school but also in the community, thus it could be considered as part of a “community improvement plan,” as well. 

…See pictures of the last two Student of the Month groups in this week’s issue of the Sanborn Weekly Journal!