Students Celebrate Juneteenth By Writing Heartfelt Essays

RIVERHEAD, NY — Elementary school students in Riverhead marked Juneteenth with words from the heart.

Students at Pulaski Street School in Riverhead came together to honor Juneteenth with an essay contest celebration. Community activists and the East End Voters Coalition held the contest, which is in its 15th year, to recognize and celebrate Juneteenth, the district said.

Students were instructed to write an essay or journal entry from the perspective of a slave who had just learned about the emancipation, when freedom was garnered for enslaved people in Texas, the district said.

Nearly 200 essays were submitted, and three students were named winners — Mckayla Bozza Carroll, Nolan Bruen and Fabian Vazquez-Basurto. The winners read their essays aloud and received certificates during the event.