Two Rice students honored for ‘Live United’ essays

by Dennis Dalman

editor@thenewsleaders.com

Two Rice Elementary School students have been honored as runners-up in the United Way “Live United” Essay Contest.

The students are Cammille Henry and MacCayle Kobluk. They are two of the 14 area-wide students named as runners-up in the contest, for which 350 essays were received from throughout central Minnesota. Each will receive a $75 VISA gift card.

The grand-prize winner was Breanna Stueve, a student at All Saints Academy, St. Cloud. She received a $200 VISA gift card.

About two months ago, United Way of Central Minnesota partnered with US Bank and Times Media to sponsor the contest for fifth-graders. Each student was asked to describe in a short essay how they, personally, “Live United.”

The following are the winning essays:

Cammille Henry:

“Hi, I am Cammille and I’m 10 years old. When I go to my grandma’s I enjoy helping her with cooking and cleaning because she is disabled. I also feel good when I donate clothing and shoes to charities for those less fortunate. I like walking dogs in our neighborhood for elders because they can’t always do it themselves. I even rounded up all of my friends this summer and we walked around and picked up garbage on the roads. I sure had a lot of fun! These are just some of the ways ‘I Live United.’”

MacCayle Kobluk:

“Hi, my name is MacCayle and this is the story of my eighth birthday party. I decided rather than getting gifts, I wanted to help other people. At my party, my friends brought money instead of presents. We went shopping with our money. We bought baby clothes and baby supplies. Then we dropped them off at New Beginnings so new moms with babies would have the things they could not afford. We met a mom with her little baby and she was very thankful to us for helping. I am glad I did that.”

Breanna Stueve:

“Hello! My name is Breanna. I live united by collecting food for the food shelf in my great-uncle Randy’s name. He died of cancer. Every year my family and I collect 8,000-10,000 pounds of food and cash donations in his memory to feed the hungry. I also use my allowance to fill two boxes with personal items and toys for ‘Operation Christmas Child’ for kids in need around the world. Helping others fills my heart with love and joy! If everyone did one thing to help those in need, we could make the world live united.