Essay contest to cover historic homes
The Kootenai County Historic Preservation Commission’s third annual student essay contest on Kootenai County history will officially open Aug. 24 in conjunction with the opening of the North Idaho State Fair.
“We encourage students, parents and teachers to stop by the fair booth we’re sharing with the Museum of North Idaho to pick up a contest flier,” said Skip Fuller, HPC vice-chairman.
The flier and contest rules will also be available on Aug. 24 on the Kootenai County website, www.kcgov.org, and at public libraries throughout the county.
The contest is open to public, private and homeschool students who reside in Kootenai County and who will be enrolled in grades six through eight, and nine through 12 for the 2016-17 school year. Students will have until Feb. 17, 2017, to research, write and submit their essays.
Students will be able to choose one of 20 historic homes located throughout Kootenai County as their topic. The list of homes will be published on the county’s website and the contest flier.
“One or more historically significant homes in or near Bayview, Coeur d’Alene, Dalton Gardens, Harrison, Hayden, Post Falls, Rathdrum and Spirit Lake are on the list,” Fuller said. “We wanted to be sure all population centers in the county are represented on the list.”
The contest has received great support from parents and teachers over the past two years, nearly doubling the number of entries from middle school students.
“We’d love to see a similar trend in the number of high school level entries we receive take place this year,” Fuller said.
Cash and other prizes will be awarded to first-, second- and third-place winners at the middle and high school levels. First-place winners receive $200, second-place winners receive $100 and third-place winners receive $50. The Frontier Ice Arena has added its support to the contest by offering a “broomball party” (no ice skates or ice skating skills required) for up to 30 people and free passes to public skate sessions as prizes to first-, second- and third-place winners. Family and individual memberships to the Museum of North Idaho and honorary membership to the HPC have also been added to the list of prizes; other prizes may be added in the future.
“The HPC is extremely pleased that both participation in the contest and winning essays are transcending the public, private and home-school sectors,” said Robert Singletary, HPC chairman and recorder on the contest’s judging panel. “The winning essays have really been excellent, reflecting the hard work individual students put into researching their chosen topic, organizing the information they gather and applying good writing skills to create their essay.”
For more information or questions about the contest contact Skip Fuller at diski@live.com.