VFW PATRIOT PEN ESSAY 2ND PLACE WINNER

Shalaka Deshpande, a 7th grader at Skyridge, placed second at the state level in the Veterans of Foreign Wars Patriot Pen essay competition. Each year more than 125,000 students in grades 6-8 enter the VFW’s Patriot’s Pen youth essay contest. The first-place and second-place winners from each state compete for national awards totaling $50,000.The national first-place winner wins $5,000 and an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., in March. This year’s theme was “What Makes America Great”.