Fifteen students received awards in the Ashland Library essay contest

By Sara Brown

Fifteen middle-school girls and boys were honored and awarded cash prizes May 4 as winners in the Friends of the Ashland Library (FOAL) essay contest. An enthusiastic gathering of families, teachers, friends and community members crowded the Ashland Public Library Gresham Room to cheer them on.

The purpose of the contest was to illustrate the value of books and reading to middle school students.

Contestants were to describe a book they had read and explain how it touched their lives. Ninety-four essays were submitted by the contest’s March 15 deadline.

Participants were students in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades from Ashland Middle School (40 essays), Trails Outdoor School (41 essays), Willow Wind Community Learning Center (12 essays), Ashland Connect (none), and home schoolers (one essay).

To stimulate participation, the FOAL Board essay team were not concerned about spelling, grammar, or punctuation in the essays. The prizes were intended to make it worth students’ best writing efforts: for each grade, $100 first prize, $75 second prize, and $50 third prize. In addition, two Honorable Mention certificates for each grade were presented.

Cash prize winners were given the opportunity to read their essays to the crowd themselves or have a parent or a member of the FOAL essay team read for them. Essays explained how a book had touched their life, which meant that a number of the essays revealed students’ hopes and fears. Most students summoned their courage and read their essay.

The heaviest competition came from the sixth graders with 53 entries. The winner of the sixth grade first prize was Athena Ousley, a home-schooled student, for her essay on “No One Returns from the Enchanted Forest” by Robin Robinson. Athena wrote that she read the book and then “reread it because the cheerful ending and encouraging lessons calm my busy mind.”

Out of the seventh graders’ 21 essays, Tristina Brower, of Ashland Middle School, won first prize with her essay on “Charlotte’s Web” by E.B. White. “I am inspired by Wilbur (the pig) because he did not care or over exaggerate what he thought about himself,” wrote Tristina. “He accepted himself without a doubt.”

Twenty eighth graders entered the contest, and Scout Drossos, of Ashland Middle School, won first prize for her essay on “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. Scout wrote that as she has grown older, she’s learned that “A villain is only mean because of what people have done to them. A hero is only kind because life experiences helped them see through the smog the villains fell into.”

The pictures and essays of the cash prize and honorable mention winners are available on the
Friends of the Ashland Library’s website under Events.

Sara Brown is a member of the board of The Friends of the Ashland Library, a nonprofit that supports the Ashland Library and Jackson County Library District through raising funds and volunteering.