Patriotic essay wins 5th grader district award

By Polly Keary, Editor

For a kid who was struggling with writing, he’s sure winning a lot of recognition for writing well.

Gage Nagy, a 5th grader at Fryelands Elementary, was trailing somewhat in writing, although he does quite well in math and science.

So he decided to challenge himself. After a parent teacher conference, said his mother Rachel Nagy, Gage set out to earn some extra credit by entering a writing contest that had been announced at school.

It was the 2012 Veterans of Foreign Wars Essay Contest, and the topic was “How do you show your love for your country?”

Gage listed some of the things he does to honor his country, adding that doing service work is a good way to demonstrate love for America.

To his surprise, he won first place in his grade and went on to the district level.

Now he has been notified that he should be at the VFW Essay and Patriotic Pen Awards ceremony Jan. 5 at the Lynnwood Boys & Girls Club. That means he has won first, second or third place in his district.

The recognition has been a valuable confidence booster for Gage, who has been working hard on writing, said his mother.

“The big thing was, the essay came at a time when he was really struggling and didn’t want to write,” she said. “To have someone say, ‘hey, your essay is really good,’ it pushed him to do more with his writing.”

Gage’s essay

By Gage Nagy

How do I show my love for my country? Well that is what I am going to tell you about right now.

One thing is that I celebrate holidays like the fourth of July. I celebrate the fourth of July by lighting fireworks. I celebrate Memorial Day by going to clean my great grandma and grandpa’s grave with my boy scouts uniform on.

Another thing that I do is say the pledge of allegiance everyday at school and at home.

If you show your love for your country you would help out in the community. One thing you would do in the community would be to pick up trash even if you didn’t leave it there. Another way to help out is to recycle.

Something else that I am is a boy scout. As a boy scout you do a lot of patriotic things like participating in flag ceremonies and being in parades.

Another way that I show my love for my country is by honoring my ancestors. I honor my ancestors by visiting and cleaning their grave sites, but I sometimes learn about them.

This is what I do to show my love for my country. How do you show your love for your country?