{"id":205183,"date":"2026-04-23T19:55:52","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T00:55:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=205183"},"modified":"2026-04-23T19:55:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T00:55:55","slug":"elks-name-americanism-essay-winners-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/04\/23\/elks-name-americanism-essay-winners-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Elks name Americanism Essay winners"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>VW independent\/submitted information<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Van Wert Lodge 1197, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, announces the winners of the 2025-2026 Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks Americanism Essay Contest.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;This fraternal year, the theme for the contest was, \u201cWhat Does Service to Your Country Mean To You?\u201d.&nbsp;&nbsp;The students competed in divisions, by age group. Local winners, which were forwarded to the District for further judging, include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fifth grade &#8212; Ellie Adam, Crestview, first place; Kendrix Farris, Lincolnview, second place; Maverick Tice, Crestview, third place;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sixth grade \u2013 Azalea Hammons, Crestview, first place; Alirah Ricker, Grover Hill, second place; Eastin Brincefield, Crestview, third place. (back row, from the left)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Seventh grade \u2013 Sawyer Schlatter, Wayne Trace, first place; Isabel Merkle, Crestview, second place; Addison Horstman, Lincolnview, third place;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eight grade \u2013 Hazel Smith, Lincolnview, first place; Megan Parker, Wayne Trace, second place; Gage Grubb, Crestview, third place.&nbsp;<em>submitted photo<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Winners at the Northwest District level were Azalea Hammons and Addison Horstman, who both placed first in their age group; Hazel Smith, who placed second in her age group, and Kendrix Farris, Isable Merkle and Megan Parker, who all placed third in their age group.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cVan Wert Elks Lodge 1197 would like to congratulate all of our winners and we wish to thank all of the students, teachers and schools for their participation in this year\u2019s essay contest,\u201d said local Elks Americanism Committee Chair Anita Carvajal.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"393\" src=\"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Elks-Americanism-contest-edited-4-2026.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-205184\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Elks-Americanism-contest-edited-4-2026.jpg 600w, https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Elks-Americanism-contest-edited-4-2026-550x360.jpg 550w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Local Elks Americanism Essay Contest winners include (front row, from the left) Ellie Adam, Kendrix Farris, Maverick Tice, Azalea Hammons, Alirah Ricker, and Eastin Brincefield. (back row) Sawyer Schlatter, Isabel Merkle, Addison Horstman, Hazel Smith, Megan Parker, Gage Grubb, Elks Americanism Committee Chair Anita Carvajal.\u00a0<em>Elks photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VW independent\/submitted information Van Wert Lodge 1197, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, announces the winners of the 2025-2026 Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks Americanism Essay Contest.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;This fraternal year, the theme for the contest was, \u201cWhat Does Service to Your Country Mean To You?\u201d.&nbsp;&nbsp;The students competed in divisions, by age group. Local winners, which [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-205183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-youth"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 21:36:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205183"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":205185,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205183\/revisions\/205185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}