Dd12 just found out that she won the local (post) Patriot's Pen writing competions for the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
http://www.vfw.org/Community/Patriot-s-Pen/ It is open to 6th-8th graders each year and post winners go on to the regionals. Regional winners go to state and state winners go to the national competion.
Dd is apparently in the top three for the region (district) and has been invited to a banquet in early January to find out if she won the district competion or was #2 or 3. She's pretty excited. The essay topic was whether patriotism is still relevant today.