Little Neck-Douglaston Parade awards students

In what has become another local tradition, 42 northeast Queens kids were honored recently in an awards ceremony held by a local charity, for their patriotic artwork, essays or poetry.
About two hundred proud parents, grandparents and siblings gathered at the Ernie Pyle Army Reserve Center at Fort Totten in Bayside, to watch as State Senator Frank Padavan presented medals to the winners and trophies to two Grand Prize awardees.
Elsie Yau, a 6th grader from Middle School 67 in Little Neck, surpassed nearly 150 young essayists and poets; Emily Holden, a freshman at St. Francis Prep in Fresh Meadows, topped about 150 other art entrants, to gain top honors.
The Art and Essay/Poetry Contest is an annual event sponsored by the Little Neck-Douglaston Memorial Day Parade Organization. It is open to student artists from Kindergarten and writers from grade 4 through 9 who live or go to school in that area.
More than a dozen public and private schools nearby participate, and about 350 entries were submitted this year.
In 2005, the Grand Prize for Art was won by Holden’s sister Cassandra, who was then a freshman at the same school. “I saw her grandfather just beaming,” said James J. Rodgers, chair of the Organization.
The parade organization gives each Grand Prize winner a $200 Savings Bond and a trip to Washington D.C. with a parent, for a tour of the U.S. Capitol. They will have lunch in the Members Dining Room, as guests of Congressmember Gary Ackerman.
In addition to medals and certificates, all the winners get educational kits, some including a microscope, or a telescope, donated by a Long Island company.
As kids are kids, perhaps the greatest excitement was generated again this year by the arrival of 30 pizzas and cases of soda, once again donated by the Douglaston Market.
Winning entrees can be viewed on the web at www.MemorialDayParade.org