Photo provided by KCMGK: L to R: John Kone, past president KCMGK; Rosie Teague, KCMGK; Aailyah Reeves, Powers Ferry ES Silver Pen award winner; Jim Perry, past president KCMGK and Philip Gold, VP KCMGK

The following article was submitted by Jim Perry and John Kone, past presidents of Kiwanis Club of Marietta Golden K:

Over 30 years ago, Jack Boone of the Kiwanis Club of Marietta Golden K launched a Signature Project for the Club called the Silver Pen Award. This program is now a Georgia District of Kiwanis Program available to fourth-grade students statewide. We invited local schools to have their Fourth Grade classes compete for a school-wide Silver Pen Award by completing a writing assignment submitted by the Club. 

The title of the essay this year was “The Person I Admire Most”.  Each classroom submitted their top two entries to the School Administration, who submitted one from each classroom to the Silver Pen Coordinator for Kiwanis.  A panel of professionals and former educators then evaluated the remaining submissions and chose the school winner.

This year, Acworth Elementary School, Addison Elementary School, Powers Ferry Elementary School, and Rocky Mount Elementary School accepted our invitation to have their students compete. 

The winning 4th grade recipients were: ACWORTH ES – Keyden Kanau;  ADDISON ES –  Evoleht Haddock; POWERS FERRY ES – Aaliyah Reeves and  ROCKY MOUNT ES – Rachael Wilson.  Jim Perry, Past President and Silver Pen Coordinator, along with a group of leaders from the Club, presented the awards to the winners in each school during the Morning Broadcast, so all students could witness the presentation in their  respective schools.

“Each winner received a Silver Pen in a velvet sleeve, a Kiwanis Club Pen, Twenty-five golden commemorative, uncirculated one dollar coins from the US Mint, and an engraved plaque. We enjoyed many great essays from the students this year and congratulate each

winner for a job well done. Each classroom winner received a Silver Pen and a Kiwanis Club Pen”, explained Jim Perry, the Silver Pen award presenter.

We are very grateful to the Schools for their cooperation in continuing to support this writing program. The Kiwanis Club of Marietta Golden K looks forward to presenting the Silver Pen award again next year and we wholeheartedly extend our congratulations  to each award winner.