At a well-attended breakfast gathering Dec. 6 at Samuel Owens Restaurant in Coplay, Northampton Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4714 held its Voice of Democracy competition awards reception.

The Voice of Democracy program is an annual nationwide scholarship program sponsored by the national VFW. It is an essay contest for students in grades 9-12. The program provides more than $2 million in scholarships to successful entries annually.

The Voice of Democracy program began in 1947. There are approximately 40,000 grade 9-12 participants nationwide. The national first-place winner receives a $35,000 award that gets paid directly to the recipient’s American university, college or vocational/technical school to which they matriculate.

Northampton VFW Post 4714 Commander Larry Schlittler led the event. He thanked all for attending the awards breakfast and stressed the value of assisting young people to pursue higher education.

Schlittler presented monetary awards to Northampton Area High School students. Myah Scheetz was awarded first place, Izabella Bealer garnered second place, and Logan Pierson-Balik won third place.

Their adviser, Lisa Hohenshilt, and retiring adviser, Jerry Batcha, were present to support the winners and the program. A number of VFW veterans were also in attendance, dressed in blue military dress uniforms. Family members of the award recipients also attended.

The national VFW-designated 2025-26 theme of the students essays was “How Are You Showing Patriotism and Support for Our Country?”

All three essays were forwarded to the PA District 20 office. If one of the three wins the district essay competition, that student will automatically be entered into the Pennsylvania state-level competition, held in January 2026. If successful at the state level, that winner will advance to the national competition, held in Washington, D.C., during the spring of 2026.

If the winner prevails at the state level, the student will receive a minimum $1,000 scholarship and an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., to compete at the national level.

All of the three local winners competed against numerous other applicants at the VFW local level. They received, in addition to the scholarship money award, jackets, a Breakaway duffel bag and a certificate of achievement.

An added bonus for the winners was that they and their family enjoyed breakfast with other participants and VFW members.