The South Dakota CHARACTER COUNTS! project and the South Dakota 4-H Foundation announced the winners of the 2012 Foundations For Life essay contest.
More than 120 students took part in the state contest that encouraged young people to choose a maxim from a predetermined list and write an essay that shows how the maxim fits into their lives. The students chose from a range of maxims such as “When one helps another, both gain in strength” and “The smallest good deed is better than the grandest good intention.”
The winners from fourth-, seventh-, and ninth-grade classes around South Dakota included the following youth:
Fourth graders
First, Danika Gordon of Whitewood
Second, Caleb Stricherz of Watertown
Third, Hannah Heuer of Summit
Fourth, Owen Comes of Watertown
Fifth, Keaten Benson of Stolkholm
Seventh graders
First, Alex Wakeman of Brookings
Second, Marlys Stahl of Tabor
Third, Kayli Oetken of Brookings
Fourth, Kadie Roosenboom of Sioux Falls
Fifth, Haley Delaney of Brookings
Ninth graders
First, Brad Kari of Newell
Second, Kiera Leddy of Stockholm
Third, Madison VanWallegher of Letcher
Fourth, Jordan Bickel of Trail City
Fifth, Allison Buckley of Mitchell
Karelyn Farrand, 4-H Youth Character Education Field Specialist is the project coordinator of CHARACTER COUNTS!® for SDSU Extension. She said the project challenged schools to participate in the statewide “Foundations for Life” essay contest, and that eight new schools joined the project for the first time this year.
“Across South Dakota, 517 students participated in local competitions, and we were really pleased to see such a large number of writers taking this challenge,” Farrand said. “We had more than 120 essays that went from the local to the state competition and those writers represented 21 South Dakota schools.”
Donors Joe and Elaine Floyd served as judges for the competition, along with judges from Dacotah Bank and Black Hills Power Company.
Source: SDSU Extension release