FOUNTAIN VALLEY : Three Students Win Essay Contest Prizes

Kazuo Masuda Middle School student Kiff Crandall says he’s lucky to live in America.

“We don’t have the problems of war and no food,” said Kiff, 12.

In an essay he wrote for a contest, Kiff imagined what life would be like living in a war-torn country or in a place where finding food was a daily crisis.

“As a child in India or Somalia, would I wake up hungry every day and have to hunt for something to eat? As a Muslim child in Bosnia, or a child from South Africa, would I spend my day dodging bullets or burying a relative killed in a civil war?” Kiff wrote.

For his poignant writing, Kiff was among three Fountain Valley students who won top prizes in The National Americanism Essay Contest, co-sponsored by the Amvets and Amvets Auxiliary.

Kiff won local, state and national awards, including a $1,000 savings bond.

The other local winners were Stephanie Hu, 15, a Fountain Valley High School student, who also received local, state and national prizes. As the national winner, she received an expense-paid trip Nov. 4-7 to the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge, Pa. Crista F. Noel, 17, a student at Ocean View High School in Huntington Beach, received local and state recognition for her essay.

All of the students received certificates of recognition by the City Council.

Mira Wright, a member of Amvets Auxiliary, Post No. 80, coordinated the essay contest in local schools.

“It gives them something to earn outside of school,” Wright said.

The 1992-93 contest theme was “America My Home.”

Kiff, a seventh-grader, said he was surprised to win top honors. “I’m very proud and happy,” he said.

Stephanie, a sophomore, said she is looking forward to traveling to Pennsylvania and learning about the Freedoms Foundation, which dedicates itself to further a better understanding and commitment to the nation’s heritage.

Crista, a senior, also described winning as an achievement.

“I just enjoyed writing how I felt about America--and I got something back.”