PATRIOTS PEN

  

Patriot's Pen 2023-2024 


VFW National Headquarters announces the Patriot's Pen 2023-2024 Theme, "How are you inspired by America?".  

Student Entry Deadline:  October 31, 2023

Patriotic Written Essay Competition Grand Prize: $5,000 Award

Patriot's Pen Application

 

Patriot's Pen 2022-2023

 

"My Pledge to Our Veterans”

 

By

 

Bristol M. Thomas

 


First Place Winner from Fowlerville Junior High School, Fowlerville, Michigan


My Pledge to our Veterans

I live in a country where I get to dream big dreams. When I was little, I wanted to be a teacher like my mom. As I got older, I decided that I want to be a cosmetologist. I enjoy talking to people and am interested in helping others be confident in themselves. I can best accomplish this by working with my future clients to help them look their best so they can feel their best. Now, you may be thinking what does this have to do with veterans? In my opinion, my dreams have everything to do with veterans.

I hope that every veteran knows that I am dreaming big dreams because of their service to our country. I pray that every veteran understands how thankful I am for their service. I will work tirelessly to achieve my dreams because my dreams would never have been possible without our veterans. Our veterans have fought tirelessly throughout our country's history to protect the liberties and freedoms all Americans share. Without these liberties and freedoms, I may never have had the opportunity or choice to become a cosmetologist. Had our country's history been different, maybe my career would have been chosen for me. Had our country's history been different, as a girl I maybe wouldn't have been able to go to school or to have a career at all. However, thankfully we have men and women in each branch of the armed forces that are willing to fight for the liberties, freedoms and ideals imagined by our founding fathers. It is our veterans that have made the ideals and values expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution something that have carried on throughout America's history.

 

The veterans that have served our country deserve to be repaid by every single American. One of the best ways we can repay our veterans is to dream big dreams, work to achieve them and to show we are thankful for their service. Every veteran has taken an oath to defend our country against all enemies foreign and domestic and to uphold the Constitution of the United States. It is my oath to our veterans that not only will I work to achieve my dreams, I will do so in their honor so they know that nothing I accomplish in life would have been possible without their service to our great country.

 

 Past Patriots Pen Winners

 

2018-2019     Josiah J. Schafer                     Fowlerville Junior High School                  "Why I Honor the American Flag"

2019-2020     Brennan M Wyrembelski     Our Lady of the Lakes Catholic School      "What Makes America Great"

2020-2021     Elsa G. Rosenthal                   Fowlerville Junior High School                   "What is Patriotism to Me"

2021-2022     Jackson Harlan                       Williamston Middle School                         "How Can I Be a Good American"

2021-2022     Bristol M Thomas                   Fowlerville Junior High School                   "How Can I Be a Good American"

2022-2023     Bristol M Thomas                   Fowlerville Junior High School                   "My Pledge to Our Veterans"

2023-2024                                                                                                                               "How are you inspired by America?"