The Americanism Essay Contest is a program of the Elks’ Grand Lodge Fraternal Committee. This contest is geared towards students in 5th through 8th grades to promote Patriotism among young people.

Rules

1. At the time of the contest, eligible participants must be Students enrolled in one of these four divisions: I—5th grade; II—6th grade; III—7th grade; or IV—8th grade.
2. Essay length is not to exceed 300 words.
3. Essay must be typed or legibly printed in ink. Also, Essay must be submitted as written (or typed) by the entrant.
4. Essay must be submitted for judging to the Elks Lodge nearest to the address of the entrant.
5. Participant must be identified by name, grade, school attending and sponsoring El
6. ks Lodge on the Essay.

Awards

Plaques will be awarded by Grand Lodge for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Place for national winning essays in Divisions I, II, III, and IV. Monetary awards will be disbursed for each grade level for 1st Place—$1,000; 2nd Place—$500; and 3rd Place—$250. Winners will be announced at the Grand Lodge Session.

Dear Exalted Rulers and Lodge Secretaries,

I want to start this message by personally thanking State Secretary Mark Cronin for once again providing his assistance in distributing the material for this year’s Essay contest. His assistance, as well as the increased involvement by the Lodge chairmen and the Area chairman has resulted in us realizing the highest percentage of lodges becoming involved in this important program.

I realize that in some cases it has been difficult to get the local schools to become involved in this program, but it is my hope that every lodge will submit at least one entry — lodge members can get any youth in the 5th to 8th grade involved.

This year’s theme of “What Does Service to Your Country Mean to You?” provides a great opportunity for these youth to thoughtfully consider what service to others means to them.

The attached file provides further guidance as well as the forms required for essay submission

The Grand Lodge has maintained the following guidelines for the contest this year:

There are 4 categories as follows: 5th grade, 6th grade, 7th grade and 8th grade.

The Grand Lodge will continue to award cash awards in addition to the plaques for the national winners. The cash prizes for each grade are as follows: 1st place $1,000 , 2nd place $500 and 3rd place $250.

I am also pleased to announce the State Association will continue the demonstrate their outstanding support for this program by awarding the following cash prizes to the winners at each grade as follows: 1st place $250, 2nd place $125 and 3rd place $50.

There are a couple of reminders that I want to pass along.

After judging the essays at the local level each lodge can only submit their top three essays in each grade to the Area Chairman

•  Area (1) Maureen McNamara (tinkamante@yahoo.com)
•  Area (2) Rosemary Theberge (rsmry641@aol.com)
•  Area (3) Marie Harvey (mjh1126@comcast.net)

The cutoff date for submission to the Area Chairman is January 31, 2026.

In order to avoid the cost and delays associated mailing the entries I am requesting that all submissions will take place electronically and once again I want to emphasize that all essays must be submitted to your Area Chairman .. The only essays that I will consider are those that come from the Area Chairman

Consistent with the policy we started several years ago the Area Chairpersons will be directly involved in the judging process at the state level.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me at lmurphy804@verizon.net

Fraternally yours,

Larry Murphy, PDD

State Chairman on Americanism