Cooper Scherr honors vets through writing, wins county VFW
prize
A local seventh-grader’s essay on
”
When is the right time to honor our veterans?
”
was selected as the winner of the 2009 Veterans of Foreign Wars
Hollister Post 9242 Patriot’s Pen essay contest and will now
compete in a district competition.
Cooper Scherr honors vets through writing, wins county VFW prize
A local seventh-grader’s essay on “When is the right time to honor our veterans?” was selected as the winner of the 2009 Veterans of Foreign Wars Hollister Post 9242 Patriot’s Pen essay contest and will now compete in a district competition.
Cooper Scherr of Sacred Heart School, a runner-up in last year’s competition, had his writing named the best of 55 entries from junior high students from around San Benito County. He will receive a check for $200 and his essay – along with those of two local runners-up – will be entered in the district competition against essays by students from South San Francisco to King City.
Scherr, whose father and both grandfathers served in the military, said he was “very happy” when he found out that he had won.
“It felt really good to be in front of the school and win the award,” he said, referring to a ceremony held in front of his classmates last week. “I’ve always seen other kids receive it, so I thought it would be neat if I won.”
The aspiring professional basketball player, coach, or – if those don’t pan out – holder of a doctorate in history, said he has “a strong devotion to our veterans” because of his family ties.
“My pop was in the Coast Guard, my grandpa was in the Army as a parachutist and my dad was in the Army as a doctor,” said Scherr, whose father is now the director of the emergency room at the Veterans’ Administration Hospital in Palo Alto.
When he wrote about veterans, Scherr suggested that “we should always honor them when they come back” from a tour of duty.
“I also wrote that when we see them in public in uniform we should go up to them, shake their hand and thank them for their service to our country,” he said. “When we say the flag salute, we should always say it with pride and integrity because that’s what they served for.”
Scherr’s mom, Mindy, gathered copies of some of the Sacred Heart School essay entries and brought them to the V.A. hospital where her husband works, so that patients there could feel the appreciation from the younger generation.
Eight runners-up in the essay contest will receive $25 each for their patriotic prose. They are: Sacred Heart students Benjamin White, Mikayla Irvin, Jack Morris and Daniel Gonzales; Ryan Ruiz of Cienega School; Brittany Lake and Dane Miller from Spring Grove School; and Caleb Mendez, who is home-schooled. Lake and Ruiz were honored for their writing last year as well.
Certificates of merit will be awarded to all entrants in the contest. Essays were scored without judges knowing an entrant’s name, grade level or school.
More than 115,000 students participate in the contest each year, with the overall national winner receiving a $10,000 savings bond and a trip to Washington, D.C.
