Cowra's Cohan Howden Wins ANZAC Writing Competiton Category

Primary and secondary school students have honoured our ANZACs with another huge response to an annual writing competition organised by the Member for Riverina, Michael McCormack.

Mr McCormack said he had been impressed by the depth of feeling for ANZACs among the more than 680 entries from 23 schools submitted for his 15th writing competition.

This year’s theme was “ANZACs:

Heroes all”. “Many entries displayed a deep empathy for what our heroic ANZACs endured during their service to our nation, and not just World War I ANZACs, but also for Veterans from subsequent conflicts and peacekeeping operations as well as their families and even war animals, such as horses and dogs,” Mr McCormack said.

“The high quality of writing came from not just study, but also from the heart.”

Mr McCormack thanked all students for their entries as well as their families, teachers and school administrative staff. “Without their support the competition would not be possible,” Mr McCormack said.

Every student who submitted an entry will receive a personally-signed participation certificate featuring a watermark of the front cover of this year’s annual ANZAC Day commemorative booklet, produced by Mr McCormack, which will arrive in letterboxes across the electorate in the coming weeks.

Entries were put into Primary and Secondary categories and divided into North, South, East and West divisions.

Each of the 16 winning and highly commended entries have been published in the 36-page booklet, which also contains fascinating articles about the extraordinary deeds performed by ordinary residents who went to war and often performed extraordinary deeds.

These 16 students will also receive a book prize from the Australian War Memorial.

The booklet also contains all the ANZAC Day service times from locations across the Riverina, Snowy Mountains, South West Slopes and Southern Tablelands.

Primary schools winning book prize recipients

North: Evelyn Tait, 10, Year 4, St Anne’s Catholic College, Temora
South: Alfie Robson, 11, Year 6, Sturt Public School
East: Lily-Rose Mooney, 11, Year 6, Gundagai Public School
West: Grace Kelly, 12, Year 6, St Brendan’s Primary School, Ganmain

Primary schools highly commended book prize recipients

North: Madison McCormack, 11, Year 6, St Anne’s Catholic College, Temora
South: Lucy Lloyd, 12, Year 6 Henschke Primary School, Wagga Wagga
East: Holden Pearsall, 10, Year 5, Murrumburrah Public School
West: Noah Burns, 7, Year 2, Matong Public School

Secondary schools winning book prize recipients

North: Cohan Howden, 16, Year 11, St Raphael’s Catholic School, Cowra
South: Thomas Abell, 14, Year 8, Wagga Wagga High School
East: Hailie Onley, 17, Year 12, Cootamundra High School
West: Khya Mead, 14, Year 10, Junee High School

Secondary schools highly commended book prize recipients

North: Archie Foster, 13, Year 8, St Anne’s Catholic College, Temora
South: Abigail Touzel, 15, Year 10, Wagga Wagga Christian College
East: Katelyn Leseberg, 16, Year 11, Cootamundra High School
West: Elliane Reynolds, 16, Year 10, West Wyalong High School

• Topics:
• Literature / Writing
• Competitions / Giveaways