Deadline this month for VFW scholarship competitions

The Veterans of Foreign Wars offers a scholarship program through two competitions, and an award for teachers.

The Patriot’s Pen essay competition is for sixth- through eighth-graders. This year the theme is “Why Honor the American Flag.”

The first place winner at the national level will receive a $5,000 scholarship. The essay is required to be 300 to 400 words. There should be no way to identify the essay’s author within the document.

Voice of Democracy is a speech competition for ninth- through 12th-grade students. This year’s theme is “Why My Vote Matters.” The first place winner at the national level can receive up to a $30,000 scholarship. This speech must be three to five minutes in length recorded on a CD or flash drive. There should be no way to identify the speech author within the speech.

In addition, the VFW is seeking nominations for the Smart/Maher VFW National Citizenship Education Teacher Awards. This nomination requires an application and nomination statement of 350 words or less. Teachers can be nominated for the kindergarten to fifth-grade level, sixth- to eighth-grade level and the ninth- to 12th-grade level.

Information is available at the local VFW Post or vfw.org under the community tab, the youth and education tab has applications for all of these programs, including rules. The deadline to enter at the local VFW Post is Oct. 31. There are awards offered at Post, district and state levels as well as the national level to be earned in these programs.

Contact the Whitefish VFW Post 276 for more information at 862-4949.