FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP — In what turned out to be a very timely project, the Sunrise Optimist Club chose the winners at the local level of the "Optimist International 2002-03 Essay Contest." This year’s topic is "When Our Freedom Is Threatened."
According to a press release, 150 students from six western Monmouth County high schools participated and the winners were announced at a club meeting.
The chosen essays are now entered in the Optimist district competition and the district winners will vie for scholarship awards from Optimist International.
First-place winner Stephanie Tang of Marlboro High School compared how "an overbearing … Parliament" in colonial times "did not stop us from gaining our representation" with how "an overconfident shadow such as Bin Laden will not stop us from annihilating every terrorist base" today.
Second-place winner Al-Zada Aguilar, also from Marlboro High School, described how, due to "the darkness of terrorism … the very innocence of a child is lost for the sake of freedom, of survival, of security … And he sheds a tear for humanity … yet in his tear, lies his innocence. And in his innocence, lies our hope."
Scott Maraldo of Howell and Katherine Chillscyzn of Freehold tied for third place.
Maraldo suggested that people from "the rest of the world … will change their minds when it is their people who are choosing to jump down onto a city street from skyscrapers lit afire with jet fuel."
Chillscyzn described her "personal battle" after her father died when she was 11. "You become judged through your father’s death by the way that you display your emotions. Emotional freedom becomes impossible." Chillscyzn asked, "What is there to do when the freedom to be yourself is threatened by those who have always supported you?"
The motto of Optimist International, with more than 120,000 members, is "friend of youth." The Sunrisers meet at the Golden Bell diner, Route 9 south, from 7-8 a.m. each Friday. To learn more about the Sunrise Optimist Club contact Len Nachbar at (732) 409-1112.