{"id":205252,"date":"2026-04-26T20:52:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T01:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=205252"},"modified":"2026-04-26T20:52:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T01:52:40","slug":"local-elks-lodge-announces-americanism-essay-winners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/04\/26\/local-elks-lodge-announces-americanism-essay-winners\/","title":{"rendered":"Local Elks Lodge announces Americanism essay winners"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"550\" height=\"436\" src=\"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Elks-Americanism-essay-winners-2026.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-205253\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p><em>VW independent staff\/submitted information<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Van Wert Elks Lodge 1197, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks has announced the winners of the 2025-2026 Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks Americanism Essay Contest. This fraternal year, the theme for the contest was, \u201c<em>What Does Service to Your Country Mean To You?<\/em>\u201d The students competed in divisions by age group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The local winners, which were forwarded to the district for further judging, were (front row, left to right):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>5th grade: 1st place \u2013 Ellie Adam, Crestview Elementary School<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>5th grade: 2nd place \u2013 Kendrix Farris, Lincolnview Elementary School<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>5th grade: 3rd place \u2013 Maverick Tice, Crestview Elementary School<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>6th grade: 1st place \u2013 Azalea Hammons, Crestview Middle School<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>6th grade: 2nd place \u2013 Alirah Ricker, Grover Hill Middle School<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>6th grade: 3rd place \u2013 Eastin Brincefield, Crestview Middle School<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Pictured left to right, back row)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>7th Grade: 1st place &#8212; Sawyer Schlatter, Wayne Trace Middle School<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>7th Grade: 2nd place \u2013 Isabel Merkle, Crestview Middle School<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>7th Grade: 3rd place \u2013 Addison Horstman, Lincolnview Middle School<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>8th Grade: 1st place \u2013 Hazel Smith, Lincolnview Middle School<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>8th Grade: 2nd place \u2013 Megan Parker, Wayne Trace Middle School<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>8th Grade: 3rd place \u2013 Gage Grubb, Crestview Middle School<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anita Carvajal \u2013 Lodge Americanism Committee Chair<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Winners at the northwest district level were Azalea Hammons and Addison Horstman who placed first in their age group. Hazel Smith placed second in her age group and Kendrix Farris, Isable Merkle and Megan Parker placed third in their age group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Van Wert Elks Lodge 1197 congratulated all of the winners and thanked all of the students, teachers and schools for their participation in this year\u2019s essay contest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VW independent staff\/submitted information Van Wert Elks Lodge 1197, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks has announced the winners of the 2025-2026 Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks Americanism Essay Contest. This fraternal year, the theme for the contest was, \u201cWhat Does Service to Your Country Mean To You?\u201d The students competed in divisions by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-205252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-topstory"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-03 23:45:20","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\/205252","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=205252"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":205273,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205252\/revisions\/205273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}