By Helen Klein
Bay Ridge area students will be putting pen to paper over the next month or so, as the Bay Ridge Community Council’s annual essay contest has gotten underway. “If I Could, I Would…,” the topic for this year’s competition, the 30th in BRCC history, was announced during a luncheon meeting held at William McKinley Intermediate School, I.S. 259, 7305 Fort Hamilton Parkway. Students in fifth to eighth grade at 23 area educational institutions will be participating in the contest, said Essay Contest Chairperson Linda Mollo-Holmes. They will be asked to write essays at least 150 to 250 words in length on the essay topic, which Mollo-Holmes said had emerged as she helped her father sort through 40 years worth of possessions prior to moving. “I constantly said, if I could, I would,” Mollo-Holmes noted. “You can take it any way you want,” Mollo-Holmes told teachers who attended the meeting on their schools’ behalf. The students’ efforts, she said, will be judged, “Strictly on the creativity of the writing and sticking to the topic.” The contest is one aspect of BRCC’s outreach efforts to the community, noted BRCC President Barbara Vellucci. “We try to highlight people’s talents and skills, and try to make connections with people in different ways,” she told her listeners. Besides the essay contest, the organization sponsors a track and field day and a Halloween art contest, both of which predate the essay contest. A grade winner will be determined for each participating school; in addition, an overall winner in each grade will be determined. School grade winners receive plaques; overall grade winners receive plaques plus a prize. All students whose essays are submitted will receive certificates. The participating schools are Public School 102, Public School 104, Public School 127, Public School 170, Public School 176, Public School 185, Public School 204, Public School 229, Intermediate School 30, Intermediate School 187, Intermediate School 201, I.S. 259, Adelphi Academy, Holy Cross School, Poly Prep Day School, Bay Ridge Prep, St. Anselm’s School, St. Bernadette’s School, St. Ephrem’s School, Our Lady of Angels, St. Patrick’s School, Leif Ericson Day School and Lutheran Elementary School. The contest originated, recalled Jane Kelly, the first chairperson of the Essay Contest Committee, when former BRCC President Robert Hedlund, “Decided that we should have something for people who didn’t participate in art and sports.” The first topic that students wrote about, Kelly recalled, was, “When Grandma Was a Girl.” Awards will be distributed to the Essay Contest winners at BRCC’s May meeting, which will be held at 7 p.m. on May 22nd at McKinley. Overall grade winners will read their essays to the crowd at that time. This is a highlight of the evening, said Mollo-Holmes, who recalled, “We have had some which made us laugh, and some which made us cry.”
