In preparation for the Little Neck-Douglaston Memorial Day Parade, organizers have announced their annual essay and art contest for local youngsters.
Open to all students - kindergarten through ninth grade - the contest requires entries to be written within a particular theme chosen for each grade.
The theme for kindergarten contestants, for example, is “Our flag. It is red, white, and blue, with stars and stripes.” So the kids are asked to draw a picture of themselves, their friends, and the flag.
While kindergartners through third graders are asked to create art projects on 22” x 28” standard oak tag, other classes can combine artwork with poetry and essays.
Two grand-prize winners - one for essay, the other for art - will win a $200 U.S. Savings Bond, an overnight trip to Washington, D.C., and an audience with an elected official, who is yet to be announced. Plaques and educational toys will also be awarded to first- and second-place winners. Entries are due in by Thursday, May 4.
“It’s a very good contest. We get a lot of entries between the art and the essay contest,” said contest Co-Chair Catherine Glover.
Last year’s grand prize essay winner, Heather Dawn Cohen from P.S. 266, wrote a poem, “Free Like Me.”
“A helmet, a turban, a skullcap, a fez,
you might find any of these hats on our heads.
We mix and we mingle amongst us, you see.
That’s one of the best things about liberty,” she wrote.
This year’s contestants are also invited to march in the Little Neck-Douglaston Memorial Day Parade, scheduled for Monday, May 28 at 2 p.m., with their own banner. The parade is the largest Memorial Day parade in the nation.
The awards will be presented to the winning kids by local politicians on Friday, May 18 at 7 p.m. at a location of the awards night has yet to be determined.
For more information about the contest, visit www.memorialdayparade.org, or call contest Co-Chairs Barbara Quigley-Barba at 718-786-9430 or Glover at 718-740-3015.
