For the first time in its 48-year history, a student from Michigan has won the national Veterans of Foreign Wars Patriot’s Pen essay contest. That student is Ruby Howe, a seventh grader at Kingsbury Country Day School, representing VFW Post 334 North Oakland.
Each year, more than 110,000 students in grades 6-8 from across the country enter the Patriot’s Pen contest, according to the VFW website, by writing a 300-400 word essay on a patriotic theme chosen by the VFW commander-in-chief. This year’s theme was “What Makes America Great.”
Howe won $5,000 and an all-expense paid trip to Washington D.C., where she will tour the White House, the Holocaust museum, Arlington National Cemetery, Mt. Vernon and a cruise on the Potomac River.
She previously received $1,000 for winning the state level at the VFW Mid-Winter Conference in Kalamazoo in January.
“It’s very exciting,” Howe said about winning, “but it’s also kind of nerve-racking.” She felt a lot of pressure as she progressed from representing her school, to the VFW post, to the district, the state, and now the entire country. “I’m really thankful,” she added.
“I’m not a big writer,” she admits, “but I do enjoy writing if I am passionate about the topic.” Sometimes she wants to be a photographer, other times she wants to be a history professor.
Her mother, Michelle Mineau, agreed. “Ruby is a good writer, but it doesn’t come easy. She has to work at her writing. . . Obviously it’s really polished.”
“I wrote this like three times. It took a couple weeks, it was a long process.”
Diversity is what makes America great, according to Howe. Her essay is titled “America: Creating a Quilt of Diversity.” She compares America to her grandmother’s quilts. “The pieces of cloth are like different people from different places around the globe,” she writes. “The different designs and patterns on the fabric are everyone’s religions, races, and cultures.” She goes on to argue that the thread that holds all the pieces together is freedom.
The essay started out as a writing assignment for her English class. It was up to students whether they wanted to submit it to the contest.
‘Diversity’ was not part of the assigned topic per se, she focused on that aspect on her own. She was adamant about it.
“There are other things that make America great. We have good education and we have fresh water, but that doesn’t make us different,” she reasoned. “Diversity makes us different because we are made up of everyone coming here. We are our own beautiful country where all the little countries fit in one country. . . Plus, it’s election year so this is important that we need to focus on diversity.”
Along the way she has received plenty of positive feedback. Her aunt said it gives her hope that this is how Howe feels as a young person. A parent at school, who emigrated from Germany, said it made him feel welcomed.
“Grandma’s quilts are very warm, comforting,” Mineau observed. “It seems like Ruby’s essay is like a quilt in itself, comforting people that see this is what a child feels, that their specialness is important.”
Getting this far in the competition has demonstrated that “what she wrote actually resonates with people,” Mineau said.
Ruby didn’t think she would go far because it might be a controversial topic or an opinion that others wouldn’t share.
“You haven’t said anything divisive, you talk about this quilt of oneness,” Mineau encouraged her.
Progressing to the state, then national level has reassured her, “people really do care about other people and they do see that other people’s differences are something to celebrate.”
“She’s only 12,” Mineau is quick to remind people, “don’t forget that.”

Read Ruby’s essay here: oxfordleader.com/america-creating-a-quilt-of-diversity/