Berwick’s Grayson Johnson Wins Eastern PA Essay Contest

December 15, 2005 — Last week, Norwin's Jason Shirley celebrated winning the Western PA grand prize in the just-completed Blueprint Communities essay contest. This week, it's Berwick's Grayson Johnson who can celebrate after winning the Eastern PA grand prize and taking home an additional $500 in cash from the FHLBank of Pittsburgh.

The Berwick Middle School sixth-grader bested submissions by 101 other students from seven communities across eastern Pennsylvania to take the top division honor in an essay contest sponsored by the FHLBank. In addition to the cash, Johnson received a handsome trophy at the Eastern Pennsylvania Blueprint Communities training session, held December 13–14 at Willow Valley Resort near Lancaster.

Paul Reichart, chairman of the board of Columbia County Farmers National Bank and a director on the FHLBank's board, as well as a member of the Berwick Blueprint Communities team, made the presentation to Johnson at the final workshop, where Johnson read his winning essay. "We read many of the essays written by our local Berwick students on the way here, and we were very impressed with the quality of them overall," said Reichart. "We're very, very proud of this young man, Grayson Johnson."

As part of the local introduction of Blueprint Communities, students in grades 6-8 were invited to take part in an essay contest that asked this question: "A 'blueprint' is a plan for the best way to build something — a car, a house, a career, a future. What would be your blueprint making your community a better place to live?"

A total of 245 entries of 500 words or less were received from 17 Blueprint Communities across the state. The essays were evaluated by an independent panel of one dozen graduate students in English at the University of Pittsburgh using the Pennsylvania Writing Assessment Domain Scoring Guide.

"If you've been out of school for a while, as I have, you may have wondered about the state of education in Pennsylvania today, especially in distressed communities," said Scott Smith of the FHLBank's Corporate Communications Department. "But I'm here to tell you that, if this essay contest is any indicator, our schools are still vital, our teachers still care and our students are still committed to making their communities better places to live."

Johnson had been identified December 1 as one of 17 local winners, for which he received $100, a certificate of achievement from Gov. Rendell, a poster suitable for display at his school and a T-shirt proclaiming him the winner.

Johnson's essay may be read on the Berwick page of this site. For more photos, click here.