Kynleigh Elkins, a fourth grade student at Southeast Fountain Elementary, was chosen as the top female participant in the state for her essay about the United States flag. She earned the right to compete at the state level after winning the sixth district in the annual American Legion contest.
Elkins read her essay at the Legion’s state conference on April 17 at Indianapolis. She also was awarded a $1,000 scholarship.
She is the daughter of Josh and Jessica Elkins, Mellott.
Her essay is as follows:
The flag of the United States is a symbol to the world of our country’s independence, of our individual liberty and of our unity as a nation.
The American flag means many things to me. It symbolizes pride, joy, strength and ability. These all come from the flag of the great country we live in. The flag symbolizes pride, the pride of our country, ourselves and pride for our flag of American.
We have 3 different versions of our country’s first flag. They are the Bennington, the Stars and Stripes and the Betsy Ross flag. The 3 different flags we fought were the Pine Tree flag, Gadsden flag and the Continental Colors.
Why do countries have flags? ... Flags show that we belong to a community, organization or nation that we share beliefs, goals, rules and regulations.
Flags are a national symbol. Ever country has a specific flag as their symbol.
Francis Scott Key still saw the flag flying at dawn. He knew our country was still free.
This inspired him to write the Star Spangled Banner, which became our national anthem. Which we do the Star Spangled Banner every day at school before school.
We have so many freedoms. Here are some of the freedoms we have in the United States.
We have freedom of assembly, freedom of worship and the freedom of movement.
These are not all of our freedoms. We have many more.
The flag has been used to display our nationalism as we as our rebellion.
And everything else between. The flag is so important that’s its history tells the story of American itself. It represents the freedom, dignity and true meaning of being an American.
The stripes represent the original 13 colonies and the stars represent the 50 states of the Union. The colors of the flag are symbolic as well — Red symbolizes hardiness and valor, white symbolizes purity and innocence and blue represents valiance, perseverance and justice.
When you see the flag, you stand at attention with right hand over your heart. People in uniform salute the flag. We should also show the same respect when our National Anthem is played. The best way to respect our flag is to display it every day.
This unity is not an accident! It is not something we should take for granted.
Each of us has a duty to help preserve our country’s unity and freedom.
