Three Montoursville Area High School students received honors as well. They were honored at a recent Montoursville Area School District board meeting.

The essay contest is open to students in a 11-county area in North Central Pennsylvania. First place winners were awarded $500; second place, $250; and third place, $200.

The winning essays were:

• Middle School First Place — “Can Good People Do Bad Things” by Desyrae Neidig

Montgomery

• High School Second Place — “How Bias Paved the Way for Hitler” by Addison Harvey

• Middle School Second Place — “The Systematic Spreading of Antisemitism Towards Genocide” by Cyrus Heddings

High school student Noah Hepler garnered an honorable mention certificate and a $100 cash prize. Four middle school students also were awarded honorable mentions and $100 — Nadia Farenish, Wyatt Hamilton, Abel Conahan and Kaden Kleinman.

James Ravert is the teacher of the middle school students. He combines the study of “The Diary of Anne Frank” with the opportunity to engage the students in a voluntary effort for the contest.

Richard DeLong is the teacher of the high school winners.

DOR officers David Jacobson and Ray Huff presented the awards along with Ravert and DeLong.

Several students in the Montgomery Area School District also earned recognition for their essays.

Taking third place in the middle school category was Elliana Jacobs, who wrote “Hatred and the Holocaust.”

Honorable mentions at the high school level went to Aubrey Barto, Glayne Gozum, Connor Nathaniel Jarrett and Amelia Shrimp.

The Days of Remembrance program’s inspiration started with the action of Congress in 1980.

David Young, then a teacher in Okinawa, Japan, conducted a class project on the definition of the Holocaust. Students had very little, if any, knowledge of the Holocaust.

Young and the Jewish military chaplain on the base established an essay contest to encourage students to learn about the Holocaust. From that experience, the essay program was born.