Rotary 4-Way Test Essay winners
Peak to Peak Rotary Club
The Peak to Peak Rotary Club held its weekly meeting at Fortune Valley Casino last Thursday, April 16th. The meeting’s main guests were Gilpin County School students who were members of the Rotary-sponsored Interact Club, Bobby Garza and Kira Hicks, and students who won the Rotary’s “4 Way Test Essay” contest in March, Michael Barngrover, Victoria Pietsch, and Beth Bendrat.
Interact Club officers Bobby Garza and Kira Hicks brought their sponsors up-to-date on their activities. There are currently 15 students in the club and they are quite active as an organization. Interact recently conducted a “Penny Wars” contest at the school and raised $398 for a donation to Rotary International’s Polio Plus program to help eradicate the disease from the world. Some of their other recent projects include: volunteering at the Denver Rescue Mission, collecting 110 boxes of material for recycling, and donating $200 to a wildfire mitigation group. On Earth Day, April 25th, Interact Club members will be presenting a recycling program at the Exhibits Barn located at the Gilpin County fairgrounds. Garza and Hicks both spoke about the rewards of volunteerism and expressed sincere gratitude for the hard work of their school sponsor, Kurt Halsted.
For the writing contest, students were asked to submit an essay based upon the Rotary’s 4 Way Test questions in making a decision: Is it the truth? Will it build goodwill and build better friendships? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it be beneficial to all concerned?
Thirty-two essays were submitted for the contest and out of those entries five winners were chosen: Michael Barngrover (9th grade), 1st place, $150 award; Katura Sales (8th grade), 2nd place, $100 award; Abigail Flowers (12th grade), 3rd place, $50 award; Victoria Pietsch (9th grade), Honorable Mention; and Beth Bendrat (11th grade), Honorable Mention.
The title of Barngrover’s winning essay was “Silk Screen Printing.” Barngrover read his essay during the meeting, explaining that his dad and their silk-screening business in Black Hawk was the inspiration for his topic. The essay described how Barngrover made a decision to start helping his dad with his business and how it lead to a closer relationship between them. As Barngrover wrote, “When I was little my dad was just my dad, but now he is my partner, my friend, and my dad.” For Barngrover the silk-screening business answers the “building goodwill and better friendships” test question the best in that “it built a better friendship between me and my dad.”
“Should I Stay or Should I Go?’ was the title of Katura Sales’ essay describing her decision-making process on where to continue her education for high school. Sales was admitted to the very competitive International Baccalaureate (IB) program at Lakewood High School. Sales cited sports participation, friends, and primarily family as the main considerations in making her decision to remain at Gilpin and not attend Lakewood. Even though she was not aware of the 4 Way Test questions at the time, Sales wrote about her decision, “I followed the Four-Way Test…and according to the test, I made the right decision.”
Abigail Flowers wrote about her personally difficult decision to not play on the volleyball team in high school. Flowers was unaware of the 4 Way Test questions when she made her decision, but in retrospect her evaluations were based upon the same instinctual principles. Having already used the test questions in successfully making a right decision, Flowers feels the test “will help me to make decisions in the future.”
Rotary president Neal Standard presented each of the winners in attendance with a letter of commendation and thanked them for their participation. This was the first time Rotary sponsored such a contest, a sort of pilot program, and there are plans to make it an annual event during the Rotary’s literacy program. Standard commented that with the number of essays received—particularly with the good quality of the writing—it was difficult to limit the winners to just a handful. Next year may offer more placements with cash prizes.
Gilpin County School graduating seniors are strongly encouraged to submit their applications for Rotary Club scholarships ($1,000) available for college expenses. The deadline for the application submission is Monday, April 27th.
The next Rotary Club meeting at Fortune Valley Casino will be on Thursday, April 23rd, from noon to 1:00 PM. The casino offers a wonderful buffet lunch for the cost of $10. Guests are always welcome. Please call 303-582-1537 for more information.