Press Release, East Shoreline Catholic Academy

East Shoreline Catholic Academy (ESCA) is proud of seventh-grade student Nicolas Tolnay upon winning first place in the Patriot's Pen Essay Competition at the local level for middle school students.

The event took place at the VFW Post on Indian Neck Avenue in Branford on Dec. 6. All the participants of the competition were invited to a pizza social where gift card awards were presented to the first-place winner at the high school level and the first-place winner at the middle school level. All the contestants were thanked for their participation in the competition by the Walter Dymarczyk Memorial Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 12106. Ed Masotta, VFW Post 12106 Senior Vice Commander, Adjutant, handed out the gift card awards.

"My Voice in America's Democracy" was the chosen theme for the 2024-2025 Patriot's Pen Essay Contest. Three judges were chosen to read the essays.

VFW Post Senior Vice Commander Ed Masotta said, "There were so many good essays it was difficult for the judges to choose one over the other. However, they based the winning essays on theme knowledge, clarity of the essays, and ideas. One thing that stuck out to the judges in Nicolas' essay, among other things, was an anonymous quote: ‘We don't inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.’“