You Have GOT to See These Kids!

Last weekend, I had the immense pleasure of helping celebrate Constitution Day in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with Constituting America (www.constitutingamerica.org) founded by actress Janine Turner and political activist Cathy Gillespie.

The celebration capped off their annual competition called We the People 9*17 Contest, that encourages kids from kindergarten through college to read the United States Constitution and express their thoughts.

Well, the winners will amaze you! From a wonderfully-detailed emblem created by Arkansas 5^th grader Hollie Elliott all the way to the speech from Bob Jones University college junior Jonathan Ludwig, the winners of this contest will help assure you the future of our country will be in good hands.

Two music winners were particularly remarkable – Emily Keener, a 12-year-old (!) from Ohio won best Middle School Song and Kori Caswell, a senior at Hannibal High School in Hannibal, Missouri, won for best high school song. You will be blown away by both of these young ladies and their amazing musical abilities and voices. Please visit the Constituting America website to listen to these amazing songs and see all the winners.

Keener’s mother Jenny told me Emily is self-taught on the guitar and that she has to tell Emily many times to go to bed because she won’t stop playing her guitar. Caswell plays in her school’s band as well as with the Quincy Symphony Orchestra.

When the Constituting America winners were invited to the Independence Hall Tea Party Association rally Saturday evening, Caswell rocked the crowd with a sing-along of her song. I found myself singing the tune way after the performance.

The purpose of Constituting American and the We the People 9*17 Contest is to promote the Constitution to our children. So many times, they don’t hear about what the Constitution means to them, or worse, their teachers subvert or disparage the Constitution. This contest offers an opportunity for kids to explore the truth about what the Constitution means to them in whatever medium works for them – art, music, written word, or film.

Winners this year won a trip to Philadelphia with their families to help film a documentary about the Constitution, filmed at various locations around the city including Independence Hall, Christ Church, and the Constitution Center, which is a fabulous place to learn more about our founding document. The children also read the preamble of the Constitution with former Chief Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and performed their works in an awards ceremony on Saturday.

Each student also won a gift card or check provided by one of the contest sponsors including Visa and American Express. For all the rules for the 2011-2012 contest, please visit their website page at http://www.constitutingamerica.org/downloads.php.

Judges for the contest are an accomplished group including President Bush’s chief speechwriter Marc Thiessen, Walden Media president and co-founder Michael Flaherty (that’s the studio that produced the Narnia movies) and Peter Flaherty, co-founder and principal of The Shawmut Group. You might know this firm as the one who puts together those public service announcements like the little boy who usurps the concert pianist to play “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” on stage to the shock and then delight of his parents.

It’s a wonderful opportunity for your child, their class at school or the patriot club you have started with them to learn about what the Constitution means to them.

In the words of 6^th grader Jeffrey Pistor, Best Poetry Winner Grades 3-5, from Texas, “The Constitution is something that every man should know. To hold our country together and not let freedom go.” So true.

Find out more at www.constitutingamerica.org.