History Contest Winners

Announcing the Awards for the Vashon Heritage Museum’s 2020 History Project Contest

Heritage Museum History Contest Winners of 2020, we celebrate all of you and your wonderful projects.  In the words of contestant Henry Jonasson, “What I learned was it was hard—and worth it.”

We also celebrate your parents.  You students stand alone in your abilities, but behind every good student is a wealth of support and encouragement on the home front.  And we celebrate your teachers who have cultivated your academic skills as well as your imaginations.

We want to thank our sponsors whose generosity made it possible for us to offer this contest to our community’s students:  Puget Sound Cooperative Credit Union and Thriftway. If you patronize these businesses, please add your thanks to ours.  We also thank 4Culture for its continued support of the Museum.

Honorees: in only a few years you will be graduating from high school.  Seniors who want to go on to college apply for local scholarships by creating a notebook about themselves. Your prize is worthy of including in your resumé in that notebook.  The Museum is one of the groups offering a scholarship.

This is the 7th year for our contest, and we are thrilled to have such fine entries. Each year is different, and so far there has not been exactly the same topic twice.  Instead, there is always variety, and we see creativity and hard work. We know it is hard, because each entrant gets to pick a topic and then to decide how to present it—and being told you can do anything you want does not make your choices easy.

You students are successful because you did make these hard choices. You did research and wrote about your findings.  In addition, you had focus, the capacity for concentration, the ability to follow through on your ideas—plus, again, imagination and creativity. We honor all of you for these many successes.  You are all winners!

Students may pick up their prizes between 1:00 and 4:00 p.m. Saturday, May 9, or Sunday, May 10 at the Vashon Heritage Museum.

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Miriam Casad

“The Salmon Bake”

5th Grade at Chautauqua

Miriam’s essay is a focused and well-organized personal and historical account of Vashon’s annual salmon bake sponsored by the Catholic church. One of her successes was putting other people’s information into her own words.

Leif McBennett

“Vashon Strawberry Industry”

4th Grade at Chautauqua

An essay with photographs, Leif’s work presents a beautifully organized compilation of his visit to Mukai Farm and books he found on the subject.

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Brendan Blower

“My Report on the Dockton Dry Dock”

4th Grade at Chautauqua

Brendan’s essay on Dockton Dry Dock reflects his love of history.  He knew that the Dry Dock had been moved, and he wanted to know more about it. His essay is organized by chapters and includes a glossary.

Bennett Thorpe

“Native Americans on Vashon”

Grade 4/5 at Harbor School

This well-executed stop-motion animation video using Lego characters took a lot of time and patience to produce, but “I liked learning about Native Americans, and I like to do stop-motion,” said Bennett.

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Alexis Delgado

“Tramp Harbor Dock”

Grade 4/5 at Harbor School

Alexis enjoyed writing about the dock because he liked going there.  His personal descriptions of jigging for squid and bottom fishing take the reader into his experience.

Antoinette M. Guy

“The First Saucers of America”

Grade 5 at Chautauqua

Antoinette’s essay about the first flying saucer sighting on Maury Island included a video collage of UFO pictures and redacted FBI reports. For her, the hardest part was finishing the project because “I was so interested that I didn’t want to be done with it.”

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Weston Dorr

“The Fabulous Life of James Vashon”

Grade 4/5 at Harbor School

After Weston finished his research, he felt as if he personally knew James Vashon, so well, in fact, that it “made it easy to create the story with dialogue.”

Emily Rock

“Horse Riding on Vashon”

Grade 4/5 at Harbor School

Emily is learning to ride horseback, and in her essay she expresses the way this experience connects her to Vashon and the beauty that surrounds her. For her, the best part was finding the information she needed.

Natasha Sullivan

“Vashon’s History”

Grade 4/5 at Harbor School

“Vashon, where everybody knows you.  It’s like Vashon is its own little state,” begins this essay. It took Natasha more than one effort to produce that start, but using a book about Vashon and consulting her grandparents helped her think about Vashon as a community, and she liked getting to know her home better.

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Lucy Ahern

“Vashon Essay”

Grade 4/5 at Harbor School

Lucy chose to write about three defining scenes which exemplify for her the essence of Vashon: VCA June dance performances, the Strawberry Festival, and the tree lighting at Christmastime.  Many sensory details evoke a sense of community.

Issac Hobson

“How I Moved to Vashon”

Grade 5 at Chautauqua

It was nearly a year between the time Isaac learned he was moving to Vashon and when the family could actually occupy their house.  He writes of the five different places they lived while waiting and of the events he remembers at each.

Emi Odegard and Josie Reiling

“Many Wonders All in One”

Grade 4/5 at Harbor School

These two classmates chose to collaborate on something they both like to do: write poetry. They liked working together, and they wrote drafts of many types of poems before coming up with this one that ends “Many wonders all in one, Vashon.”

Zoe Star D’Artell

“Vashon Aerial Routine”

Grade 4/5 at Harbor School

Using aerial work to represent her ideas was a new experience for Zoe.  For her video presentation, she also researched the music, created an appropriate backdrop, and developed her own routine. She found that she used her talents and interests in new ways.

Charles Irish

“Historical Vashon Comic”

Grade 4/5 at Harbor School

Charles wanted to do a comic strip because “comics can make things more fun so that people will want to read it.”  His 16 panels plus the cover illustrate various important places and happenings on Vashon.

Maren Stern

“Haikus of Vashon”

Grade 4/5 at Harbor School

Maren likes Haiku poetry. Choosing just the right words, making her thoughts make sense, and fitting it all into the demanding syllabic haiku structure was a challenge she accepted and conquered.  For all six poems.

Grant Fitterer

“This Place”

Grade 4/5 at Harbor School

Grant created a freestyle poem to express his memories and feelings about Vashon.  He thought the best part of entering the contest was sharing his ideas, especially with others who have the same memories.

Henry Jonasson

“Some of My Favorite Vashon Birds”

Grade 4/5 at Harbor School

Henry likes nature and Vashon has a lot of wildlife. For this project, he chose to carefully illustrate three of the favorite birds he sees in his yard. 

Matilda Strain

“Vashon’s Orcas”

Grade 4/5 at Harbor School

Matilda used her love of painting to create (in acrylics) a quiet beach scene—without people—just an Orca whale and peaceful natural details to show the beauty of Vashon.

Also Participated

Simon Lanphear

“The History of Anu Rana’s Kitchen”

Grade 4/5 at Harbor School

This is a large poster representing an interview with Anu Rana.

Sophia Lanphear

“The History of the Blue Heron”

Grade 4/5 at Harbor School

This large poster traces the story of this familiar historic building.

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