Fountain Hills VFW Post 7507 has selected this year’s winners of the Patriot’s Pen, Voice of Democracy and Teacher of the Year award with plans to honor recipients at a special event scheduled for February.

Each year, local students are invited to take part in a pair of essay writing contests while local administration nominates educators for their work with students in the classroom.

According to Post 7507 Senior Vice Commander Phil Yin, the 2013 school year has shined a light on quite a few high achieving students and teachers, with this year’s finalists being announced in December.

“Congratulations to all of you for being selected finalists for this year’s essay contests and Teacher of the Year award,” Yin said in a statement to those selected.

“A huge thank you also to Cynthia Couture and Tim Yoder for their work in making this possible for all of their students and to those who nominated our Teachers of the Year.”

Post 7507 selected five high school students as finalists in the Voice of Democracy competition. Brandon Barth took first place with Samantha Ferrato in second and Andy Szwiec in third. Honorable mentions went to Emilia Lawrence and Michael Appel.

Over at the middle school, Kyle Spencer Clark was selected as the first place essay for the Patriot’s Pen.

Eduardo Levato took second with Amara Feyrer-Melk in third. Honorable mentions went to Drew Hoffman and Kathryn Reed.

High School teacher John Burnett was selected as the Teacher of the Year with McDowell Mountain’s Susan Bovinette taking second.

Of these winners, Burnett and a pair of students from each essay writing contest were selected to represent Fountain Hills as District 4 finalists and continue on in the competition at the state event held Saturday, Jan. 11.

Barth and Ferrato continued to compete for the Voice of Democracy competition with Clark and Feyrer-Melk continuing on in the Patriot’s Pen category. With his parents, sister and two sets of grandparents in the audience, Barth placed fourth in the state competition.

“Our post will be holding an awards celebration in February at the Fountain Hills Unified School District Learning Center, awarding the 10 student finalists with cash awards and award certificates and the two Teacher of the Year finalists with a gift,” Yin explained.

“Lastly, we would like to thank Mr. [Tom] Lawrence, superintendent of FHUSD, and all of the principals for their support of all of our patriotic programs each year.”