Farmington Rotary's 17th Annual Essay Contest Awards Luncheon was held June 5th at Farmington Gardens. For 17 years, we have partnered with the Farmington Public Schools and West Woods Upper Elementary School to promote literacy among our children and the ability to articulate and persuade in writing. In past years, we have offered students a topic. This year, however, the students were offered the opportunity to write on a topic that they felt impassioned about and offer their essay as a piece that may appear in a newspaper. Many students submitted essays for consideration and five 5th and five 6th graders were chosen as top contest winners. Fifth graders include Meher Akmal, Joyce Li, Gemma Rouke, Kyra Sardinas, and Leila Taweh. Their writing teachers are Sharon Leger, Judy Muirhead and Jill Slayton. Sixth grade top winners include Sneha Balur, Kecia Seo, Preston McNulty-Socha, Reagan Olivastro, and Yifan Wei. Their writing teachers include Erin Gilligan, Dana Grin, Jeremy Forgione, and Ben Stern.
Pictured are the 5th and 6th grade students who won top awards this year; their writing teachers; Kristen Alvarez, the West Woods Literacy Specialist; and Mike Schloss, our club literacy event coordinator.