On Monday, Sept 20 awards were given for the 12th Annual American Spirit Project at Liberty Hall in Farr West Utah. The theme of the essays was “Why American Spirit Matters.” 1st Place went to Kristen Aeschlimann of Pleasant View who wrote about her experience as a wife and mother of a member of Law Enforcement and how she reacted to the dreaded “Officer Down” phone call. Hers is a powerful story and that can be appreciated by every citizen.

A runner-up essay was from Sheila Howe of Pleasant View — she wrote about an experience she had while teaching elementary school as she gave a creative response to a question from a student about “freckles”.

Another runner-up wrote about her family’s experience when her father was called to active duty. Courtney Giebel shared her thoughts about serving in the military as it relates to American Spirit.

Still another runner-up Dallin Christensen chose to write about our country’s founding fathers and how it was the catalyst for American Spirit.

Each of the runners-up received an award of $200.

The motivation for starting the American Spirit Project began with an article in the S.E. in 2009 about a soldier from Cache Valley who was killed in Iraq. An idea was taken to the North Ogden Kiwanis Club to start an essay contest for students in Weber School District, the subject was Freedom. In 2010 and 2011 hundreds of essays were written by students in 4th thru 12th grade and scholarship $ was given to dozens of students. From 2013 thru 2021 the project has recognized individuals through essay contests as well as by peer selection.

We are beginning work for next year with our 13th year’s theme yet to be decided.

John Reynolds

Pleasant View

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