VFW also awards Oxford IB’s Flynn as national Teacher of the Year

Ruby Howe, a seventh grader at Kingsbury Country Day School, won the Patriot’s Pen essay award for her 300-400 word essay on “What Makes America Great” at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Mid-Winter Conference in Kalamazoo Jan. 23-26.
She will now represent the State of Michigan at the National VFW contest with an all-expense paid trip to

Washington D.C. Howe also received the $1,000 Wes Longenbach Memorial Award and plaque.
Howe’s essay is titled “America: Creating a Quilt of Diversity.”
It begins, “The beautiful quilts my grandmother makes remind me of what makes America great – diversity! The pieces of cloth are like different people from different places around the globe. The different designs and patterns on the fabric are everyone’s religions, races, and cultures. The individuality that makes everyone unique is what makes America so wonderful!” Howe goes on to argue that the thread that holds all the pieces together is freedom.
Howe had previously won at the district level at the VFW’s 5th District Annual Awards Banquet at Post 7573 Lempke-Blackwell in New Baltimore Jan. 5.
Also at that ceremony, Oxford Community Schools International Baccalaureate coordinator Rita Flynn received the National Citizenship

Education Teacher of the Year award for K-fifth grade, for instilling a sense of national pride in her students.
Participating VFW Posts in Oakland and Macomb counties nominated winners in categories for students and teachers of different grade levels. The Patriot’s Pen is for 6th-8th grade.
Flynn and Howe represented Post 334 North Oakland, which includes Oxford.
“I feel extremely grateful to be given an award that I truly believe so many others deserve,” Flynn said. “As a part of my job I make connections and the connections that the VFW has with educators is that we ‘serve.’ We are meant to contribute every day in any capacity. We are both in the perfect positions to give to others. I am so joyful to be recognized, but I also feel that it is my duty to give my all.
“We are all a piece of the serving puzzle. I am one piece. There are so many more. So, thank you for the recognition. I feel an even stronger urge to contribute to our community, our schools, our veterans, and our world.”