2023 Juneteenth Essay Contest

The Kyle Buda Kiwanis Club is coordinating the “2023 Juneteenth Essay Contest”. With a vision of promoting critical thinking, research, written communication, and verbal engagement, this essay contest is intended to motivate students to explore their city, county, state, and country. Students entering the contest will write an essay to express their perspective of the theme.

The theme of the essay contest for 2023 is Why is Celebrating Juneteenth Important?

The 2023 Juneteenth Essay Contest is open to 6th through 12th grade students who live or attend school in the cities of Bear Creek, Buda, Kyle, Mountain City, Niederwald, and Uhland, Texas. Students will use the 2023 theme for the prompt of their essay.

Essays will be submitted by mail to:

Juneteenth Essay Contest 2023
c/o V. Westbrook
337 Buckingham Drive
Kyle, Texas 78640

Essays must be received by May 15, 2023; deadline extended to May 20, 2023*.

Guidelines:

  • Essays will be mailed in 9”x12” size envelopes. Do not fold essays but pages can be stapled together.
  • Each essay has a minimum of 500 words to a maximum of 1000 words.
  • Handwritten essays will not be accepted.
  • Student’s name should be at bottom of each page of the essay and each page should be numbered.
  • Essays must be submitted in double-space format, 14 points, and in one of the following fonts: Calibri, Cambria, Times New Roman, Arial, or Courier
  • Students may only submit one essay for the contest.
  • There will be two categories of winners: middle school level and high school level
  • Students under the age of 18 must include the signed parent/guardian permission sheet.
  • Student information/registration and parent/guardian permission sheet must accompany essay packet.
  • Student writers should pay attention to grammar/spelling, historical perspective, topic, style, and structure as related to the essay theme.
  • Judges’ decision for winners is final.

Juneteenth Essay Official Rules

Sponsorship: The sponsor is Kyle Buda Kiwanis Club (“Sponsor”). Sponsor will conduct the Juneteenth Essay Contest substantially as described in these Official Rules.

Agreement to Rules: By entering this contest the Entrant (“You”) agrees to abide by the Sponsor’s Official Rules and decisions, which are fully and unconditionally binding  in all respects. The Sponsor reserve the right to refuse, withdraw, or disqualify any entry at any time at the Sponsor’s sole discretion. By entering this contest, You represents and warrants that You are eligible to participate based on eligibility requirements explained in the Official Rules/Guidelines. You also agree to accept the decisions of the Sponsor as final and binding as it relates to the content of this Juneteenth Essay Contest. Students under the age of 18 must have a completed, signed parent/guardian permission slip submitted with essay and student information sheet.

Juneteenth Essay Contest Entry Period: This promotion begins on the 15th of April 2023 at 12:00 am CT and ends on 15th of May 2023 at 11:59 pm CT (“Entry Period”). To be eligible for the contest, entries must be received within the specified Entry Period.

Rights Granted by You: By submitting an entry (e.g., text, photo, etc.) into this Juneteenth Essay Contest, You understand and agree that the Sponsor, any individual acting on the Sponsor’s behalf, and the licensees’ successors, and assigns of the Sponsor shall, where permitted by law, have the right to print, publish, broadcast, distribute and use in any media known now or hereafter developed, in perpetuity, worldwide, and without limitation, your submission, name, photo, portrait, voice, likeness, image, statements about the Juneteenth Essay Contest, and your biographical information for news, publicity, advertising, promotional purposes, trade, information, and public relations without any further notice, review, consent, compensation, or remuneration. Entries must be original work and not violate anyone’s proprietary or intellectual property rights. Entries that infringe upon the intellectual property rights of others will lead to the disqualification of the participant. You shall defend or settle against such claims at your sole expense. If any claims should arise as a result of infringement, You shall indemnify, defend and hold harmless the Sponsor from any suit.

Terms & Conditions: In its sole discretion, the Sponsor reserves the right to modify, suspend, cancel, or terminate the Juneteenth Essay Contest, should non-authorized human intervention, a bug or virus, fraud, or other causes beyond the Sponsor’s control, impact or corrupt the security, fairness, proper conduct, or administration of the Juneteenth Essay Contest. The Sponsor, in the event of any of the above issues, may determine the Winner based on all eligible entries received prior to and/or after (if appropriate) the action taken by the Sponsor. Individuals who tamper with or attempt to tamper with the operation or entry process of the contest or website or violates these Terms & Conditions will be disqualified by the Sponsor in its sole discretion. In its sole discretion, the Sponsor has the right to maintain the integrity of the Juneteenth Essay Contest to void votes for any reason, including, but not limited to: multiple entries from the same user; multiple entries from the same computer beyond the number allowed by the Juneteenth Essay Contest rules; or the use of bots, macros, scripts, or other technical means for entering. Attempts by any entrant to deliberately damage any website or undermine the legitimate operation of the Juneteenth Essay Contest may be a violation of criminal and civil laws. If any such attempt is made, the Sponsor reserves the right to seek damages to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Limitation of Liability: Your entry into this contest constitutes your agreement to release and hold harmless the Sponsor and its subsidiaries, representatives, affiliates, partners, advertising and promotion agencies, successors, agents, assigns, directors, employees, and officers against and from any and all claims, liability, illness, injury, death, litigation, loss, or damages that may occur, directly or indirectly from participation in the contest and/or the 1) Winner accepting, possessing, using, or misusing of any awarded prize or any portion thereof; 2) any type of technical failure; 3) the unavailability or inaccessibility of any transmissions, phone, or Internet service; 4) unauthorized intervention in any part of the entry process or the Promotion; 5) electronic error or human error in the Promotion administration or the processing of entries.

Agreement: By submitting an entry, You, the Entrant, have affirmatively reviewed, accepted, and agreed to all of the Official Rules.

Download the full document including Information – Registration – Parent/ Guardian Permission Form (PDF version)

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