Mikaela Speakes, a Pacific High School senior, won second place in the Winston Churchill Student Contest (WCSC) with her essay “Keep Calm and Carry On.”
The National Churchill Museum, located on Westminster College campus in Fulton, held the SCSC competition for the fourth time this past school year.
Students in sixth grade through collegiate level from across the country were eligible to enter scholarly essays, marketing plans or activity guides in hopes of winning one of six cash prizes.
Speakes’ second-place win included a $100 award. A representative from National Churchill Museum will present Speakes her prize May 16 at the Meramec Valley R-III School Board meeting.
For more information on the Winston Churchill Student Contest and other educational programming opportunities, contact Mandy Plybon, education and public programs coordinator, 573-592-6242, or by emailing her at mandy.plybon@churchillmemorial.org.
The heart of the National Churchill Museum is the magnificent Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury, a 17th century Christopher Wren church left in ruin from German bombings during World War II. This beautiful house of worship was brought stone by stone from England to Westminster and restored on campus in 1969.
Beneath the church is a state-of-the-art museum that combines interactive technology to tell Churchill’s story through sight, sound and touch.
In 2006, Chris Matthews, MSNBC commentator, was present at the opening of this new $4 million exhibition and said its ability to bring history to life in a dynamic, stimulating fashion was incredible and that it rivaled that of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.
Adjacent to National Churchill Museum stands a sculpture by Edwina San-dys, Churchill’s granddaughter, titled “Breakthrough,” which was constructed from eight sections of the Berlin Wall to commemorate the demise of the “Iron Curtain” that Sir Winston had predicted. The historic gymnasium where Churchill delivered his world famous 1946 “Iron Curtain” speech” is on another part of campus.
National Churchill Museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Regular admission is adults $6, seniors $5, college students and youth $4, children 6-11 $3, and children 5 and under free. For more information about the National Churchill Museum, visit www.nationalchurchillmuseum.org.
