Patriot essay winners to be Grand Marshalls in Independence Day parade
Published 11:45 am Wednesday, July 1, 2026
What kind of America do you hope to help create?
That’s the question Enumclaw elementary and middle schoolers answered in the recent “Voices of the Foothills” student essay contest last month.
This year’s winners are fourth graders Ethan Jimenez Cahett and Jude Schierenbeck, Abhigna Mandava, an eighth grader at Thunder Mountain Middle School, and seventh-grader Jaxon Shelton at Enumclaw Middle School.
As winners of the competition, these four students will be this year’s Grand Marshals of the annual Independence Day Parade, so make sure to look for them in the new red, white, and blue Fugate Fords at the very front.
Below are each students’ essays, which have been edited for clarity and length.
“What makes America special to you, and what kind of America do you hope to help create someday?”
Do you know why we celebrate America 250? Well, I’m going to tell you.
The reason we celebrate America 150 bis because it’s the day where we got the Declaration of Independence for America and because of the Revolutionary War anthem.
What makes America special to me is independence. Another reason is that it has my family. Without my family UI would not know what to do.
A reason why I like Enumclaw is because it has lots of exciting places like McDonalds, Jack in the Box, and Dominos Pizza. Also, because people are kind.
Finally, the kind of America I would like to create someday is the kind where people are respectful, people are safe, where people can be leaders and where schools are shorter to spend more time with our family.
And that is why we celebrate America 250, why I like America and Enumclaw and sharing the kind of America I would hope to create someday.
– Ethan Jimenez Cahett
We celebrate the 4th of July because it is the anniversary of our country gaining independence from Britain. This year is special because it’s the 250th anniversary. That’s a lot of years!
America is special to me because it’s where my family and I live. I have the freedom to choose my education and what I want to be when I grow up. Enumclaw is a special place to grow up because I can play sports with my friends and feel safe in my neighborhood.
I want to make America a better place by picking up trash and keeping the environment clean. Another way to make this country a better place is by spreading kindness to other people.
– Jude Schierenbeck
“As America celebrates 250 years, what values do you believe are most important for the next generation to protect and strengthen?”
America has gone and is going through many changes even now. Two-hundred fifty years ago, many values thought to be the right of mind have now changed drastically, yet current beliefs have been upheld for years. However, I believe respect for equal rights, freedom of liberty, and community are the most important values for the next generation to protect and strengthen.
The first and foremost value the next generation should strive to protect and improve is equal rights.
Equal rights have been fought for a long time, and are still being fought for. We should continue teaching the next generation, and future generations to come, that equal rights not only affect gender, race, ethnicity, and age discrimination, but also dignity.
Yes, equal rights are mostly known for giving the same opportunities for everyone and that is has become natural, but ignorance can always change the way things are now if not enforced.
Dignity; “the inherent worth, value, and honor that every person possesses simply by being human,” can be easily forgotten, just as hard as it was to come to light.
This dignity, regardless of “type,” is the so-called natural right given, but we mustn’t forget that there was once a time when equal rights were twisted because of past generations’ view on “dignity.”
Equal rights causes the acceptance of our differences in which trust emerges from. By removing this discrimination, the next generation won’t be exposed to deeper differences and act upon that.
This doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be informed, but trust comes from both sides.
Even if America ends up the only one who continues to uphold equality, others will know they have some people to trust and confide in.
Equal standards can be connected to economical and political growth and it shows that it depends on whether future generations can maintain and defend equal rights.
Moreover, having free will, or rather, liberty, is something that current generations have fought for and the next generation should carry on. To keep preserving liberty, and by that, justice, ensures that freedom and other rights are still in place.
‘Free liberty’ revisits the topic of equal rights and dignity, making it so that America keeps up that individualism and symbolism of independence.
If the next generation enhances the freedom of liberty for everyone, it will rid America of social discrimination more than equal rights could have. Likewise, liberty limits governmental power, perpetuating the governmental system of checks and balances. This allows the next generation to focus on protecting the bigger picture and not having to worry about whether the government stays balanced or not. Therefore, the next generation would do good to cultivate the freedom given by liberty.
Furthermore, community and the responsibility that comes with this value are just as important. Community brings the values of equal rights and freedom of liberty together, while making sure people stay responsible and don’t take either for granted by respecting each other’s differences.
Civic duty or communal responsibility is what helps America stay whole and true to its values, in which case it would be equality and liberty. Moving past cultural differences and more gives the public a sense of responsibility to work together. America is made from diversity and honoring that with responsible behavior makes America into a community that values independence as a country and as the people by themselves. Without going back on the previously mentioned values, the communal duty of America integrates the two into itself to create a monumental virtue of utmost importance for the future generations to secure and bolster.
Hence why I believe that the most significant values for future generations to safeguard and sharpen are equality for all, freedom to be independent, and civic responsibility. Refining these three values through the next generation will be the betterment of America’s society by respecting everyone’s differences and giving acceptance to the fact that others can be apart from you while at the same time going beyond individualism and coming together.
This is what makes up America, and why we and the next generations should hone these three values.
– Abhigna Mandava
For myself, I think that the most important value for me is that I am learning and staying on track so that I don’t have to make it up, and then I am ready for anything to happen in school, and I really take school to heart because I know that it will affect me if I am not on track.
Another thing that I value is taking care and helping other people before me especially if they need it and there are no people that are around or that really need it and will not stand up for them. I feel like if I let people down, I will fail, and that is not what I want to do because that proves that I don’t want anyone to see the good side in me.
Something that I am good at is being a leader for my school, for my football team, and even for my friends because that can prove that I am strong and that there is not a single person who can get in my way.
Something that I would tell the future generation is that they need to work as one and not separate cause then they will fall apart, and that is not how our country should treat each other in the future, and people will not trust each other. I don’t think that people should feel that way, and that they should stay stronger together and not by one, because one can’t change the world; it takes many people.
Another thing that I tell my future generation to try and do is build friendships because that is what makes that people stronger and they don’t have to be friends with everyone but they should never ever stand alone at the lunch table not know anything or even get discouraged from there culture cause every person in this country is one pack and that pack stays together even when things get hard for them.
Why should we stay together as one? Well, that is because it is important to understand our country and how the people can talk to each other and get the future perfect, which will never happen, but that is what is better if the people are together as one and not alone in a world where nobody cares about you, because that is not fair for you to feel.
So take this to heart for all of your future and don’t attack yourself if something goes wrong.
– Jaxon Shelton
