From inspirational music to super powers and hometown improvements, local students recently tackled a trio of topics as part of the sixth annual Fountain Hills Essay Contest, sponsored by the local Youth Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition.

With nearly 200 students taking part in this year’s competition, writers of the top 18 essays were honored during a special recognition luncheon hosted out of the Fountain Hills Learning Center on Thursday, Feb. 22.

Essay contest winners were joined by their families, teachers, friends, Coalition members and representatives of the community as excerpts from 15 honorable mention essays were read aloud, followed by complete readings of the three winning essays.

For the contest, students were given three topics to choose from. The first topic focused on selecting a song the student related to and how it has affected their life. The second topic focused on an element of the community or school and what the student might change to improve it. The third topic asked participants to pick a super power and explain how they would use it to help others.

This year’s first place winner of the $1,000 prize was Noah Ohnsorg, who has placed in the top three for the past three years [See related story for his winning essay]. The second place $300 prize went to Sophia Boeshans, with the $100 third place prize going to Macy Morgan.

A total of 15 students received $50 for their honorable mention essays, including Madison Benton, Richard Berman, Eden Brown, Lily Cohen, Bayley Dumitresku, Amara Feyrer-Melk, Emily Lonsdale, Stephanie Lovelace, Sydney McKeever, Deven Myers, Sherifa Momoh, Amber Olivas, Alexa Pacheco Contreras, Audrey Wilson and Rebecca Worden.

Additionally, all students who took part in the essay contest received a free Frosty courtesy of Wendy’s.

Essays were judged on criteria including response to one of the given topics, content and composition. Essays were judged without knowing the identity of the participants. This year’s judges included Mayor Linda Kavanagh, Tom Lawrence, Tom Lindsey, Jerry Traylor and Ryan Winslett.

Title sponsor was the Verne C. Johnson Family Foundation, with numerous local entities and individuals contributing to award funding.