Essay Writers Win $100 to Carry Out Good Deeds

Teens at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, children in foster care, and dozens of fresh Scotch Pine seedlings are all going to be uplifted thanks to three students at the Long Valley Middle School.

For the seventh consecutive year, the Long Valley Junior Women’s Club hosted its annual Good Deed Essay Challenge to students in seventh and eighth grade at the school. The non-profit organization would award $100 to each of three students who wrote a compelling essay about what he or she would do with the money to help others.

Ava Lusskin said she would use the money to buy material to make fleece tie-pillows. Lusskin would hold a class at the library so others could help her, and the pillows would be sent to the teenage ward of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia with the hopes of brightening their day.

Seventh grader Owen McLoughlin learned that his class uses the equivalent of approximately 66 trees in the course of a school year. He proposed using the $100 to buy 66 Scotch Pine seedlings and plant them at the Long Valley Middle School or local park to “give back to the earth what it gave to us.”

Alani Rose said she would like to use the money to help children in foster care who often have a difficult time forming memories of their childhood. Rose would hold a photo shoot and use the money to develop the pictures, then buy various scrapbook supplies so she and the foster kids could create personalized photo albums. 

It’s expected that each winner’s actions will be conducted over the summer. Nearly two dozen entrants were considered for the prizes.