Grant Bowler Elementary 5th Graders Win Essay Contest

By NICK YAMASHITA

The Progress

The Moapa Valley Education Foundation (MVEF) selected three winning essays from 5th graders at Grant Bowler Elementary this month. The announcement of the winners took place on Wednesday, May 18 at the school.

They were presented by Overton resident Nathalie Gottschalk, who is a representative of the American Immigration Lawyer Association, the sponsor of the Celebrate America Creative Writing Contest at the state level.

Gottschalk explained that the contest was open to fifth graders to challenge them to write about one of two themes: ‘Why I am glad America is a nation of immigrants?’ or ‘What does it mean to be a welcoming nation’.

“All three of the winners did and excellent job and we could not have been prouder to select them as winners,” Gottschalk said.

The third place award went to Adriana Freeman for her essay of “The Little Girl from Ireland.” She was given a stipend of $40.

Second place went to Sydney Fellers for her work entitled “Angus Walser Skousen.” She won a stipend of $60.

The winner was Madilyn Thompson who wrote “Courageous America.” Thompson won a $100 stipend and has been selected to represent Nevada at the national level competition.

All three essays were the 1st-3rd place essays at the state level and received matched stipends.
The winning girls were so proud of their accomplishments that they were speechless.
“I am proud to represent Nevada,” Thompson said.

All three girls were from Carolyn Delafrance’s 5th grade class. “Their teacher was amazing!” Gottschalk said. “She helped them and made sure they were able to get their essays done and turned in. We need more teachers like Ms. Delafrance.”

Gottschalk said that the organization had opened up the contest to all schools in Clark County. But only Grant M. Bowler Elementary students submitted essays.

“Learning, doing classwork, and working remotely has been very challenging for all of us in the last year,” Gottschalk said.

Delafrance’s students have submitted essays to the contest for the last three years running.
“This is something we at Grant M Bowler are very proud of,” said Bowler Assistant Principal Mitchell Ozaki. “To have one of our students represent Nevada in Washington D.C. on the national level is something we will hold high for a long time.”

The winning essay by Madilyn Thompson, “Courageous America” is a pleasant essay. It is about the amazing feat of Thompson’s fifth great grandmother Anne Johanne Johansen who immigrated from Denmark. She was born into a wealthy family but gave it all up to marry the man she loved. Through the loss of finances, loss of her husband, loss of a child, and other losses, she learned about a new religion in America and wanted to have the freedoms of America. She immigrated as a single mother of 5 (only 4 going with her) to America. After arriving in America, she then took the long trek West to Utah. Thompson highlighted the choices and difficulties that immigrants made for the freedoms that many of us take for granted.

Madilyn Thompson along with her parents, Greg and Carolyn Thompson, will be attending the ceremony hosted by the Council during the American Immigration Lawyers Association in June in Washington DC.

As the representative of Nevada, Madilyn will be competing at the national level and hoping to bring home the victory for Nevada and Moapa Valley.