American Fire Sprinkler Association’s (AFSA)
Virginia Chapter Announces the Winners of the 2009-2010 Essay Contest
Ron Reynolds
AFSA Virginia Chapter Essay Chairman
Each year, the AFSA Virginia Chapter awards scholarships to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place essay writers in our statewide contest. First place receives $1,500, second place $750, and third place $500. The Virginia Chapter also offers three Honorable Mention prizes of $100 each.
Only open to high school seniors, the purpose of the contest is to help educate people about fire sprinklers and how they save lives and property, and to help students continue their education. The essays must be from 700 to 1000 words, and include a bibliography. Essays are judged on accuracy, content, punctuation, and with an emphasis on creativity. Judges come from Chapter members in the sprinkler industry, fire and building code officials, and others.
Contestants in the contest this year were asked to “write a creative, interesting and convincing essay on the history of automatic sprinklers.” We received over 120 entries and as usual, they were very well written. The high quality of the essays makes it very difficult for the judges to pick the contest winners. After much deliberation using the skills of 12 different judges, the winners were picked, and here they are:
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First Place
$1500
Christina Lee
Potomac Falls HS
Sterling, VA.
Christina wrote an essay from the prospective of a fire sprinkler, protecting a residence that was very interesting and creatively done.
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Second Place
$750
Leah Coates
Washington and Lee HS
Colonial Beach, VA.
Leah’s essay was written about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911, and what the might have happened had sprinklers been present.
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Third Place
$500
Caitlin Tignor
Essex HS
White Stone, VA.
Caitlin’s essay described the contribution of Philip Pratt, the first person to patent an automatic sprinkler, at an imaginary gathering of people who had survived fires because of automatic sprinklers.
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| Read the essay |
Read the essay |
Read the essay |
Christina Lee’s essay will be entered in a contest for an additional $1000 from the AFSA National organization.
$100 Honorable Mentions go to:
- Samuel Roderick of Broadway High School, in Broadway, VA.
- Regan Mukai, home-schooled, from Alexandria, VA.
- Megan Wiles, of Courtland High School, from Spotsylvania, VA.
For the first time ever, AFSA National will have a “2nd Chance” contest open to all graduating seniors where all can enter a contest and have a chance to win $1000. Go to http://www.afsascholarship.org/ for more details. This contest is open to all of those who entered the contest as well as those who did not. There is no requirement to write an essay for the 2nd Chance contest.
AFSA-Virginia thanks the many high school seniors who entered the contest this year for sending in their essays. It is always very tough to pick the best out of so many very good essays.
The Virginia Chapter congratulates all participants. Although not everyone can win a monetary prize, we believe that everyone who entered can come away a winner in the valuable knowledge they gain of what automatic fire sprinklers can do to save lives and property.
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