Mid-Winter Conference Brings Comrades and Essay Finalists to Yakima

Congratulations to our essay winners who all performed amazingly at the state level! The Voice of Democracy finalists and the Patriot’s Pen winner were recognized at a banquet Jan. 21 at the end of the VFW Department Mid-Winter Conference in Yakima.


Our Voice of Democracy winner, Annika Trippel (pictured below left), won at the district level and went on to place FOURTH PLACE at state!


Our Patriot’s Pen winner, Ciara Fitzgerald (pictured below right), won at the district level and won FIRST PLACE at state! She’ll go on to compete at the national level — best wishes Ciara!


Our Youth Essay winner, XiaoTian O’Donohue, won at the district level and won FIRST PLACE for all fourth grade finalists in the state.


Congratulations again to Annika, Ciara and XiaoTian for their outstanding efforts. Thank you for honoring veterans through your words and actions! We are immensely proud.


About the conference, Comrade Commander Teeter said, “Thank you to my motivated post comrades — Randy Brock, Mark English and Joe Fitzgerald — for tagging along and brainstorming how we can improve Ballard-Eagleson VFW Post 3063 so that we continue to evolve as a community institution for veteran camaraderie and assistance.”