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Chloe Green, left and her English teacher LeeAnne Trumier with their prize checks (Michael Joel-Hansen/paNOW Staff)
Essay Contest

P.A. high school student wins national prize

Apr 15, 2019 | 2:46 PM

A Prince Albert high school student has won a national essay contest.

Chloe Green, a Grade 12 student at École St. Mary High School won A&E’s Lives That Make a Difference Essay Contest for a paper she wrote about the late Humboldt Broncos player Logan Boulet.

Boulet has been credited for spreading awareness about the importance of organ donations and being an organ donor.

Green said when she decided to enter the essay contest, after finding out about it from her English teacher, she knew the topic she wanted to write about.

“I instantly knew I wanted to do [it about] one of the Humboldt Broncos,” she said.

She was drawn to the idea of writing about the Broncos because she found many of them to be inspirational. She ended up settling on Boulet because she found him to be personally inspiring.

“I think that his family and friends need to know that other people see what he has done for our country,” she said.

While she was writing the essay, Green said she made sure to keep some important thoughts in mind.

“I wanted to write it in a way that I thought gave him justice, because I was just trying to make sure that it was with respect that I was writing it and making sure that I was giving the respect to his family to not put anything too personal,” she said.

The paper took Green about a week to put together. For the competition, essays couldn’t be more than 300 words.

“I think I was right at the max,” she said.

Green’s English teacher, LeeAnne Trumier said it was nice to see her student get the recognition.

“She is such a deserving student,” she said.

As a result of winning the essay contest, Green was awarded $2,000, while her teacher received $1,000, to go toward her classroom.

“We’re just so ecstatic about it,” Trumier said.

The contest, which took in essays from across the country was judged by a panel of judges from A&E. One of the members of the panel was Jim Babchak, who is the director of distribution for the television network. He said Green’s essay had lots working in its favour.

“She wrote a very persuasive essay which we loved and her creativity we just thought was tremendous,” he said.

In evaluating the submissions they got, judges looked at a number of criteria, including creativity, persuasiveness and relevancy. Speaking about Green’s essay, Babchak said it met criteria and was powerful.

“It touched our heart strings, we thought it was an amazing essay, we love the topic and we thought she did a terrific job,” he said.

MichaelJoel.Hansen@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @mjhskcdn

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