At the Mar 3 Rotary Meeting at Shadowbrook, Don Davis, chair of the Essay Contest Committee, announced the 3 top essayists in the 2022 Tunkhannock Rotary Essay Contest. The contest was open to all junior and senior high school students in Rotary District 7410. Each participating Rotary club selected a local winning essay from their school District(s), which was then submitted for judging at the Rotary District level.
 
Students from the Tunkhannock Area and the Elk Lake School Districts participated in this year’s contest.  This is the first year that Elk Lake was included in the Tunkhannock Essay Contest and in future, they will continue to be included in most of the Youth Programs sponsored by the Tunkhannock Rotary. Rotary thanks Eliza Comly, the Tunkhannock Area guidance counselor, and Emma Keyes, the Elk Lake counselor, for their help with this contest.
 
The Contest is an incentive for young people to develop their skills of self-expression, and as evidence of a sincere desire to demonstrate service above self, which is Rotary’s consistent motto. This year’s theme was “How can you serve others to change lives?” 
 
At the club level, 3 essays were selected with the winners receiving checks for $100 and $75.
 
The top 3 essayists (2 from Elk Lake and 1 from Tunkhannock) were invited to tell the club a little about themselves and to read their winning essays via Zoom at a Rotary meeting. 
 
First-place in Tunkhannock went to Anaistan Jerome, who is a Junior, in the National Honor Society, the student council and is active in her church.
 
Second place at Elk Lake went to Mackenzie Conboy, who is a Junior, a class officer, a student council member and involved in Key Club.
 
First place at Elk Lake was awarded to Alex Long, who is a Junior, in the National Honor Society, the student council and Key Club, and active in his church.
 
The essay from Alex Long was declared the overall winner at the club level and was then submitted to Rotary District 7410 for the next phase of the Essay Contest, where the top prize is $1,000.
 

l to r: Alex Long, Mackenzie Conboy and Anaistan Jerome