Winners for the 2017 Pennsylvania American Legion 82nd Annual Essay Contests for grades 9-12, as sponsored by American Legion Post No. 298 of Mifflintown, were named at East Juniata. The first place winner was Luke Davis; second place was Laney Swartz; and third place went to Clarye Guyer.

The theme for this year’s essay was “Should The American Flag Be Protected From Desecration? Explain your Rationale.” A civics teacher at East Juniata, Mrs. Nora Houser, had her ninth grade students write an essay as a class assignment. She discussed flag desecration with them, and had them do research on the topic.

Essays were to be between 500 and 1,000 words and were judged on proper English structure, accuracy, extent of information, and originality. Among the rules was that no reference, for or against any political candidate or political party affiliation was to be made.

The winning essay will now be eligible to continue in competition at the District level, and may advance to even higher levels of competition, where scholarship money is available for the winning writers.

Information about the contest was shared with all local high school students in Juniata County, and all were eligible to enter. Cash prizes were presented to East Juniata's three winners on Wednesday morning, February 1. Legion Commander Clarence Allen had planned to make the presentation, which was originally to have taken place the previous day, Tuesday, January 31, but had to be rescheduled due to school's cancellation because of the bad weather. Due to the schedule change, Allen was unable to attend, and the Legion was represented by its Auxiliary President, Susan Shelley, who is an EJHS staff member.