TOWNSEND — Townsend VFW Post No. 6538 and its Auxiliary are sponsoring the 2026-2027 Patriot’s Pen Written Essay Competition for students in grades six through eight. This year’s theme is “What a Veteran Taught Me About America.”
U.S. citizenship is not required, but participants must be lawful U.S. permanent residents or have applied for permanent residence, with an application that has not been denied.
Essays must be typed in English and contain 300 to 400 words, plus or minus a maximum of five words. Every word is counted, regardless of length. A one-letter word, hyphenated word or number counts as one word. The title and footnotes are not included in the word count. No color or graphics may be used.
Students should not put their names on their essays. A completed 2026-2027 Official Patriot’s Pen Competition Entry Form must be stapled to the top of the essay.
To ensure fair and impartial judging, entries must be anonymous. Students may not identify themselves in their essays by name, school, city, state, race, sex, religion, national origin or other personal characteristics that could reveal their identity.
Essays must be the student’s original work and reflect the contestant’s own thinking. Inappropriate use of ChatGPT or other artificial intelligence tools is not permitted. Essays should take a positive approach and remain clearly focused on the theme. Poetry is not accepted. Quotations may be used sparingly and must be clearly identified.
Essays will be judged on knowledge of the theme (30 points), theme development (35 points) and clarity of ideas (35 points).
This is the 33rd year the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States and its Auxiliary have sponsored the youth essay program, which gives students in grades six through eight an opportunity to express their views on a patriotic theme while competing for awards and prizes. More than 60,000 students participated nationwide last year.
The national competition offers substantial monetary awards. The first-place winner will receive $5,000, with additional awards of $4,000 for second place; $3,500 for third; $2,750 for fourth; $2,500 for fifth; $2,000 for sixth; $1,750 for seventh; $1,500 each for eighth through 10th; $1,250 each for 11th and 12th; $1,000 each for 13th through 25th; $750 each for 26th and 27th; and $500 each for 28th through 53rd place.
At the local level, the first-place winner will receive $100, second place $70 and third place $40. For every 15 entries received, Townsend VFW Post No. 6538 and its Auxiliary will advance one of the highest-scoring essays to the District No. 15 competition.
District No. 15 VFW and its Auxiliary will award a total of $225 to its top three winners. The winning district entry will advance to the Department of Massachusetts VFW competition. The state’s top five winners will receive monetary awards from both the Department of Massachusetts VFW and the VFW Auxiliary Department of Massachusetts. The first-place state entry will advance to the national competition.
Essay entries must be submitted by Saturday, Oct. 31, to VFW Auxiliary to Townsend Post No. 6538 President Betty Mae Tenney or Townsend VFW Post No. 6538 Past Post Commander Natalie Call.
Students attending Hawthorne Brook Middle School in Townsend should submit their entries through their classroom teachers to President Tenney.
For additional information, or to make arrangements to submit an entry for students educated elsewhere, call Tenney at 978-597-5644, extension 9, or 978-665-4026 (work).
-Townsend VFW Post No. 6538
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