Polson student wins state VFW essay contest
Rob Zolman
Polson High School senior Joseph McDonald holds his first-place state trophy for his work on an essay about equality in America.
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POLSON – Joseph McDonald, 17, a senior at Polson High School, was named the statewide winner in an essay contest hosted by the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Before he won the state competition, he received first place in a local contest hosted by VFW Post #5652 in Ronan.
McDonald has a chance to win a $30,000 college scholarship as he heads off to the nation’s capital in early March to compete in the final phase of the VFW’s Voice of Democracy audio-essay competition.
Friends and family joined McDonald on Thursday, Jan. 30, in the high school’s media room to receive the state award. Ronan VFW Commander David Oberwegner and Sr. Vice Commander David Bennett honored and presented McDonald with certificates of merit, a $2,000 scholarship check and a trophy.
“To see somebody from a small town go this far is really great,” said Oberwegner. He said McDonald’s success marks the first time a state winner has come from the Ronan post.
With nearly 1.7 million members located in nearly 6,400 posts worldwide, the VFW is the nation’s largest and oldest nonprofit war veterans’ service organization.
The VFW established the Voice of Democracy audio-essay program back in 1947 to provide 9-12 grade students from across the country with the unique opportunity to express their opinions by writing and recording a three-to five-minute essay based on a patriotic theme chosen by the national VFW office.
This year’s theme challenged students to answer the question, “What Makes America Great?”
According to McDonald, it took time for him to select egalitarianism, the doctrine that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities, as his reply to the question.
“There’s a lot of obvious things that make America great but things like good government, amounts of quality and fairness are things a lot of places have,” said McDonald. “I wanted to think of something entirely unique to the U.S.A.”
McDonald, an active student who is involved in the speech and debate team and is a member of the varsity tennis team, plans to further his education at Stanford University where he has gained acceptance to attend.
