{"id":14680,"date":"2026-06-02T21:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T21:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maryslibrary.com\/?page_id=14680"},"modified":"2026-06-02T21:32:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T21:32:15","slug":"celebrating-america-essay-contest-winning-essays","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.maryslibrary.com\/?page_id=14680","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating America Essay Contest: Winning Essays"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1022\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/www.maryslibrary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/essay-plain.png\" alt=\"essay contest banner\" class=\"wp-image-14687\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.maryslibrary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/essay-plain.png 1022w, https:\/\/www.maryslibrary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/essay-plain-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/www.maryslibrary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/essay-plain-768x513.png 768w, https:\/\/www.maryslibrary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/essay-plain-624x416.png 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1022px) 100vw, 1022px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Does America Mean to You?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This spring, the Mary S. Biesecker Public Library sponsored an <strong>essay contest<\/strong> for local students and teens <strong>grades 7-12<\/strong> to celebrate America&#8217;s 250th birthday. This project was funded (in part) by a grant from the <strong>Community Foundation for the Alleghenies, <\/strong>a PPA Partner. Participating students submitted an essay of <strong>500 words or less <\/strong>on the topic <strong>&#8220;What Does America Mean to You?&#8221;<\/strong> for a chance to receive a $50 prize. Read the winning essays below!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Grades 7-8 winner: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.maryslibrary.com\/?page_id=14690\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.maryslibrary.com\/?page_id=14690\">Gabriel Z.<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Grades 9-10 winner: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.maryslibrary.com\/?page_id=14683\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.maryslibrary.com\/?page_id=14683\">Dylan L.<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Grades 11-12 winner: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.maryslibrary.com\/?page_id=14695\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.maryslibrary.com\/?page_id=14695\">Olivia H.<\/a><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does America Mean to You? This spring, the Mary S. Biesecker Public Library sponsored an essay contest for local students and teens grades 7-12 to celebrate America&#8217;s 250th birthday. This project was funded (in part) by a grant from the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies, a PPA Partner. Participating students submitted an essay of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-14680","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maryslibrary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maryslibrary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maryslibrary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maryslibrary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maryslibrary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14680"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.maryslibrary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14724,"href":"https:\/\/www.maryslibrary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14680\/revisions\/14724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maryslibrary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}