Pulaski Street School Celebrates 10th Annual PFC Garfield Langhorn Essay Contest

Photo courtesy of Riverhead School District

Pulaski Street School in Riverhead celebrated their 10th Annual PFC Garfield Langhorn Essay Contest on Friday.

Principal David Densieski noted, “When the essay contest was started 10 years ago, there were 58 entries that first year, last year we had 289 entries. This year, we had 272 entries from the 6th grade class.”

The winners of the PFC Garfield Langhorn Essay contests were sixth graders Christopher Donnelly, Alisha Griffin and Reilly Hubbard. The 2014 winners were joined on stage by the previous essay contest winners who are still in schools throughout the district.

Langhorn was a 1967 Riverhead High School graduate who was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. The Pulaski Street School has honored his memory, and his act of heroism and valor in the Vietnam war is the inspiration for this 10th annual sixth grade essay contest.

Langhorn was awarded the nation’s highest award, the Medal of Honor, by President Richard Nixon in 1970. Nixon handed the award in a White House ceremony to his mother, Mary Langhorn, who lives in Riverhead.

On September 16, 2011, the Board of Education named the Pulaski Street School Library after Langhorn.