Hildene Offers $1000 for Lincoln Writing Competition Winners
Up to thirteen Vermont eighth graders could be cash prize winners in “Hildene’s 2009 Lincoln Writing Competition.” Hildene Executive Director, Seth Bongartz proudly notes that, “The success of the past two years of the contest in Bennington County has laid the foundation for our statewide launch and the writing competition fits squarely within Hildene’s mission to, “advance the Lincoln legacy through education, commitment to community and active stewardship of the family’s home and land.” Awards for the 2009 winners are: First Place, $1,000; Second Place, $750; Third Place, $500; up to ten Honorable Mentions of $200 each. Hildene, The Lincoln Family Home in Manchester, Vermont was the summer residence of Robert Todd Lincoln and his wife, Mary Harlan Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln was the only child of President and Mary Todd Lincoln to survive to adulthood. Three generations of Lincolns lived at Hildene over the course of 70 years, longer than any other place.
Commitment to educational programming at The Lincoln Family Home has proven a powerful tool for advancing the legacy of the nation’s greatest president and his family. Enrollment in Hildene’s school programs and summer camps has evolved from just over 200 students 5 years ago to more than 2500 this year. Participation in the annual writing competition with its focus on President Lincoln, is limited to eighth graders. Going statewide for the first time, the competition is open to students attending public, private and home schools all across the Green Mountain State.
In the first year, 2007, young essayists sought to answer the question: Why Was Lincoln our Greatest President? In 2008 participants were asked to imagine that President Lincoln had not been assassinated and to then write the farewell address he might have given to the nation in March, 1869. Students who participate in 2009 will find it necessary to engage in some research, read several of Lincoln’s speeches and then write an essay exploring the meaning of a key sentence in the president’s Second Inaugural Address, arguably his greatest.
Each student must submit their non-fiction essay with a maximum length of 500 words to Hildene by November 1, 2008. Essays will be judged based on the student’s understanding of Abraham Lincoln as a writer and a leader, as well as on the content, style, composition and grammar.
Each winner, along with their parents and teacher, will be invited as Hildene’s guests to the annual Lincoln’s Birthday Luncheon at the Equinox Hotel in Manchester. This year the luncheon will be held on Saturday, January 31, 2009 at 12:00 pm. The first, second and third place winners will read their essays. The keynote address will be delivered by Ronald C. White, Jr., a noted Lincoln scholar and author of several books, including Lincoln’s Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural.
There is great excitement at Hildene about taking this successful competition statewide and doing so in the year of the Lincoln Bicentennial. If you have interest in receiving an entry packet, contact Hildene Programming Director, Carrie Howe at 802.367.7960 or email carrie@hildene.org.
Hoyt and Ehrich Join Hildene Trustees
The Hildene Trustees recently welcomed two new board members: Perez Ehrich and Tony Hoyt. Both men will bring their diverse backgrounds and a breadth of experience to bear on their roles as trustees.
Perez Ehrich earned his BA from Harvard College, Juris Doctor from New York Law School and in 1976, his LLM from New York University School of Law. He practiced corporate and finance law in New York until 1997 when he returned to his native Vermont to join his brother Terry, in publishing Hemmings Motor News. Ehrich brings his lifelong dedication to education, the environment and social responsibility to the Hildene board at a time of growth at The Lincoln Family Home that is focused on education and scholarship, sustainability and stewardship of the family’s home and land.
Perez resides in Arlington with his wife, Elizabeth and in addition to serving on a number of non-profit boards, enjoys small scale pasture farming and time with his five grown children and four grandchildren.
Born and raised in Cold Spring Harbor, New York, Tony Hoyt is a University of Virginia alumnus and currently serves as a member of the university’s President’s Council for the Arts. He is a well known and highly respected publishing and marketing executive with more than 30 years of experience in the world of advertising and magazines, including stints with media giants, Hearst Magazines and American Media, Inc. On the heals of his successful career in publishing, Hoyt took the helm as Senior Vice President of the Magazine Division of Digital: Convergence Corporation. Digital Convergence was a technology start-up company that manufactured and distributed the Cue Cat, an optical barcode reader for magazines, newspapers and catalogues. He is the founder and current CEO of Tony Hoyt and Associates, a publishing consulting firm.
A resident of Vermont, Tony splits his time between his Upper East Side New York apartment and his home on Tollgate Road in Manchester. He is the father of two grown children, Betsy and Bobby, and has a lifelong connection to the Manchester area dating back to his own childhood and weekends spent with his aunt and uncle, Lyn and Win Hoyt.
Hildene History Book Club Reads Weiner's
"Legacy of Ashes, The History of the CIA "
Come Monday, October 13, the Hildene History Book Club may just find themselves in a somewhat “clandestine” frame of mind as they discuss their October pick, “Legacy of Ashes, The History of the CIA.” The author of this history of the U. S. Central Intelligence Agency is New York Times reporter, Tim Weiner. This is Weiner’s third book. His investigative travels have taken him to Afghanistan and other nations to see covert operations first hand. A writer on American intelligence for twenty years, he was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his work on secret national security programs.
In a New York Sunday Times Book Review of Legacy of Ashes, Evan Thomas, an editor at large at Newsweek, and author of “The Very Best Men: the Daring Early Years of the C.I. A.” points out that “Weiner is not the first reporter to see that the C.I.A.’s golden era was an illusion … but by using tens of thousands of declassified documents and on-the-record recollections of dozens of chagrined spymasters, he paints what may be the most disturbing picture yet of C.I.A. ineptitude. After following along Weiner’s march of folly, readers may wonder: Is an open democracy capable of building and sustaining an effective secret intelligence service? Maybe not. But with Islamic terrorists vowing to set off a nuclear device in an American city, there isn’t much choice but to keep on trying.”
The Hildene History Book Club meets on the second Monday of each month from 3:30 to 5:00. Check in at the Welcome Center. The group encourages readers to join in when they can. Attendance each month is not a prerequisite. Club members have selected the titles for the upcoming months through December. They are: November, Lightning Man: The Accursed Life of Samuel F.B. Morse, by Kenneth Silverman and December, The Colonel and Little Missie: Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley, and the Beginnings of Superstardom in America, by Larry McMurtry. To sign up or to learn more about the club, contact Brian Knight at 802.367.1225 or email brian@hildene.org. Book club selections for upcoming months can be found online at www.hildene.org.
Lincoln and Habeus Corpus for Summer Lecture Series
On Saturday, October 18 at 10:00 am in the Beckwith Room, Joseph R. Fornieri will deliver the final presentation of Hildene’s Lincoln Lecture Series when he speaks on “Lincoln and Habeas Corpus” The writ of habeas corpus, which protects against arbitrary arrests by requiring a judge to review the grounds for one’s detention, is considered one of the most fundamental liberties in the Constitution. During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus in response to the secession crisis. Joseph R. Fornieri explains Lincoln’s legal rationale for suspending the writ and considers whether or not he provides a dangerous precedent for the abuse of executive power, most recently, in regard to the controversy over the detention cases at Guantanamo.
Joseph R. Fornieri is Associate Professor of Political Science at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He is the author of Abraham Lincoln’s Political Faith, an acclaimed scholarly work that explores Lincoln’s religion and politics. He is the author-editor of three other books on Abraham Lincoln’s political thought and leadership including: The Language of Liberty: The Political Speeches and Writings of Abraham Lincoln;Lincoln’s American Dream: Clashing Political Perspectives with Kenneth L. Deutsch; and Lincoln’s America with Sara V. Gabbard, which will be released in November. Dr. Fornieri is an Advisory Member of the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, a Board Member of the Lincoln Forum, and a consulting academic editor of Lincoln Lore where he contributes articles and reviews regularly.
The Lincoln Lecture Series takes place on Saturdays monthly throughout the summer and early fall with presentations beginning at 10:00 am. Check in at the Welcome Center. Admission is $2. Members and volunteers are free. To learn more about other Hildene celebrations of Lincoln’s life and legacy throughout the Bicentennial, visit www.hildene.org/events. Hildene, The Lincoln Family Home is open daily from 9:30 to 4:30.
|
