Law Day Contest winners to be honored at celebration
Law Day Contest winners will receive awards Wednesday during a Law Day celebration at Washington County Courthouse.
The free event begins at 6 p.m. and will include award and scholarship presentations, a dessert reception and readings of excerpts of the Emancipation Proclamation, Gettysburg Address and “I Have a Dream” speech. All winning entries and a selection of other notable entries will be on display during the day at the courthouse.
Winners in the Essay Contest, sixth through 12th grade, were, in order of placement: Bryce Attwood, junior, Pennsylvania Cyber School; Joshua Bowman, senior, Peters Township High School; and Danielle Humphries, freshman, Trinity. Honorable mention was awarded to sophomore Matthew Sprouse and junior Sami Golaski, Trinity; seventh-grader Mark Frazee and eighth-grader Joshua Ruffing, John F. Kennedy Catholic School; senior John Dano, Canon-McMillan; and senior Leah Seader, Bethlehem-Center.
Winners in the Creative Arts Contest, sixth through 12th grade, were Trinity seniors Conor Durko and Kyle Dugan for their original rap and music video. Tied for second were seventh-grader Emily Richards of Fort Cherry for her stop-motion animation video and JFK eighth-graders Allie Porter, Grace Marchezak, Rebecca Volz, Samantha Turner, Tressa Swanson, Morgan Taufer and Zoe Woods for their powerpoint entry. Third place was awarded to Will Shrock, eighth grade, JFK, for his collage entry. Honorable mention was awarded to sopohomore Rachel Crosbie, Trinity, and seventh-graders Delaney Bird, Sydney Putna and Payton Barr, JFK.
Winners in the Bookmark Contest for second- through fifth-graders were, Nicholas Hrabik, second grade, Trinity East, and JFK fifth-graders Hunter Smith, second, Spencer Putnam, third, Addison Morrell, fourth, and Caroline McElheny, fifth. Honorable mention was awarded to JFK fifth-graders Davan Haller and Adanna Malrony; JFK fourth-graders Michael Dunn, Marissa McCracken and Daniel Bird; second-graders Alexa Camill, Zoe Sanchez, Julia Scarton and Brian Buzard, Bower Hill Elementary; fourth-graders Ayla Podraska and Jillian Panizza, Fort Cherry; fifth-grader Sydney Smichnick, California Elementary; fifth-graders Elizabeth Trevizo and Brett Zimmerman, Trinity West; third-grader Virginia Lohr, Burgettstown; fourth-graders Donovan Avolio and Lyndon Hershell, Avella; fifth-graders Spencer Kane, Michael Buchta and Carlyn Whitfield, Allison Park; and fifth-grader MacKenzie Batson, Trinity South.
Darius Colbert won the Citizenship Project Award for his Boy Scout Earth Day project. Honorable mention was awarded to senior Leah Seader, Beth-Center, for her Rainbow Cupcakes project, and juniors Jordan Pruce, Mallory Rogers, Kalina Interval and Sami Golaski and senior Nate Ecker, Trinity, for their Trinity Leadership Committee projects.
The contests were judged by local attorneys Frank Arcuri, Blane Black, Rebecca Bowman, Michele Dawson, Dawn Haber, Eugene Julian and Peter Suwak; Bar Association executive director Kathy Sabol and intern Tasha Leech; and Observer-Reporter circulation director Bridget Vilenica.
The contests are co-sponsored by the Washington County Bar Association, Washington County Bar Foundation and Observer Publishing Co. Winning entries will be featured in a Newspapers in Education Law Day tab that will be published Tuesday in the Observer-Reporter. Registration is not required but requested for the Wednesday celebration by contacting the Washington County Bar Association at 724-225-6710 or wcba@washcobar.org.