DAR Hosts Colonial Protest Essay Contest for Missoula Kids

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - The Bitterroot chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution are sponsoring their essay contest for middle school students this year entitled ‘Enjoying a New Kind of Tea Party’, which will imagine how women in Colonial America might have taken part in protests over high taxes imposed by the British.

I spoke with Victoria Emmons, Chair of the History Essay Contest for the Bitterroot Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution about the essay contest for grades 5 through 8.

Bitterroot Chapter of DAR Sponsors Essay Contest for Middle Schoolers

“The kids are asked to imagine that it's there, and they are there,” began Emmons. “They are asked to research the situation in North Carolina, actually, not the Boston Tea Party, as we all know about, but there were also tea parties held in North Carolina. So they're asking the students to imagine they're attending one of those ‘tea parties’. What was it like, and did they think that was the right decision to hold those tea parties?”

Emmons provided some parameters for the essay contest.

Students Will Imagine and Write About Colonial Life in America

“The students have to research what it might have been like during that time,” she said. “They have to cite at least a minimum of four sources for their work. They're certainly not allowed to plagiarize anything, and all that will be taken into consideration as the as the essays are judged.”

With the advent of AI, Emmons said the DAR has specific guidelines on the use of online assistance.

“They may certainly cite that as long as they're saying where a resource came from, and if they're quoting a resource exactly as it that they quoted properly, in other words, that they use the proper the proper procedures for any research paper,” she said.

Emmons had more on the local aspect of the national contest.

The DAR Essay Contest is for 5,6,7 and 8th Graders

“The contest first starts at the local level,” she said. “We have a winner for each grade, 5,6,7, and 8, and then the winners from those grades will go on to the district level contest, and the winners of those will go on state and then those winners will go on to the national level.”

Emmons said the contest deadline is in December.

“The deadline for the local level is December 15, and that goes on to the state the following months to be judged,” she said. “Then in January from there, again the district and then the national ones are announced in the spring of 2025 at the national convention of Dar held in Washington, DC.”

Emmons said the essay will be open for students in public, private, parochial and home schools. Students whose schools are not participating can enter their essays at info@bitterrootdar.org.