Lily and Hannah Preikschat stand with Royal Canadian Legion Branch 371 President Shaune Lapworth. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

Royal Canadian Legion

CCHS students receive provincial recognition for Remembrance Day essays

Apr 5, 2019 | 12:16 PM

Sisters who attend Churchill Community High School in La Ronge have received provincial recognition for essays they wrote about Remembrance Day.

It was all part of a national contest organized by the Royal Canadian Legion for school-aged children across the country. Students between Grades 1 and 12 were invited to participate in various age categories and submit either a black and white poster, coloured poster, essay or poem. Both Hannah (Grade 12) and Lily Preikschat (Grade 9) wrote essays and won first place in their zone and district to advance to provincials, with Lily receiving first place in her age category and Hannah getting second.

“It’s a major accomplishment on the student’s part for taking the time to create good essays,” said Legion Branch 371 member and contest judge Lynda Renaud. “It says we have some very dedicated students who see Remembrance Day not so much as the fact to remember the wars, but to remember the fact we have people who have served their country and are willing to make sacrifices for us to have freedoms.”

With Lily Preikschat receiving first place throughout all the submissions in Saskatchewan, her essay will now be considered for nationals and she’ll find out later this year if she places. On the branch level, Renaud stated there were more than 100 entries, which is down a bit as they usually receive around 150. The contest is promoted through teachers at the schools, who submit their student’s work just before Remembrance Day every year. There have been some previous provincial winners in the contest, but Renaud added it doesn’t happen very often.

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“I really have to say thank you to the students who take the time to write an essay, poem or make a poster, and also for the teachers to enter it,” she said.

Hannah and Lily Preikschat were both surprised to learn their essays went so far in the competition, adding they have entered the contest in the past. Their essays were each about one page in length, but they wrote about different topics.

“I wrote an essay about sacrifice and about the amazing sacrifices soldiers have made for our country,” Lily Preikschat said.

Hannah Preikschat took a slightly different approach.

“It was about what Remembrance Day is to me personally, and also just looking at how sometimes the meaning of Remembrance Day kind of gets lost in the production of it,” she said.

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno