Published February 24. 2015 11:00PM
The Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9264 in Macungie and its Ladies Auxiliary has awarded honors to four Scouts for their audio essays on patriotism.
First place was awarded to Ryan Bilger, a senior at Emmaus High School.
Second place was awarded to Damon Smigielski, a freshman at EHS.
Third place was awarded to Jacob Licker and an honorable mention was awarded to Dylan Martin, both sophomores at EHS. All the boys are members of local Boy Scout Troop 71 in Macungie.
Troop members were encouraged by Scoutmaster Robert Smigielski to submit audio essays for the VFW Voice of Democracy contest.
The Voice of Democracy is an audio essay contest open to ninth through 12th grade students sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
The 2014-2015 contest theme was "Why Veterans are Important to Our Nation's History and Future." Entrants submitted their recorded speeches which were three to five minutes.
The program is designed to encourage the entrant to present a position, based upon the national VFW theme, in a thoughtful, developed process and speech.
The Scouts submitted their audio essays to VFW Post 9264 and were honored by VFW representatives at a Boy Scout Troop meeting.
VFW Post 9264 representative Michael Hunter and the Ladies Auxiliary representative Janet Hunt, honored the entrants and their accomplishments.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Scouts from Troop 71 recently receive certificates and awards in acknowledgment of their essays on patriotism. Pictured are, from left, Dylan Martin, Ryan Bilger, Janet Hunt, president, Ladies Auxiliary Post 9264 and Michael Hunter, assistant Voice of Democracy chairman, Macungie VFW Post 9264. Scouts Damon Smigielski and Jacob Licker are not pictured.
