Region 9 Rocks!

Save Texas History Essay State-wide Grand Prize Winner!

Congratulations to Coltier Dodd, 7th grader at Northwest ISD!

Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, M.D., is pleased to announce the winners and finalists of the 2023 Save Texas History Essay Contest, sponsored by the Texas General Land Office’s Save Texas History Program. Fourth- and seventh-grade students from across Texas answered the question, “What history in your community is worth saving?”

"It has been an honor to read about young Texans' passion for our state's rich history. These students truly produced many incredible essays for this one-of-a-kind competition," said Commissioner Buckingham. “Both of our grand prize winners, Katy and Coltier, wrote about unique parts of their communities that bring people and families together in tradition and good fun. Congratulations to this year’s winners, the finalists, and all who contributed their creativity and invaluable perspectives to the ongoing story of Texas' history!"

The seventh-grade grand prize winner is Coltier Dodd, son of Lauren and Shawn Dodd. Coltier is in Darcey Ham’s class at Northside ISD in Vernon. His essay, The Santa Rosa Rodeo Grounds – Keeping Traditions Alive, showcases the only wooden rodeo arena still in use in Texas. Coltier’s connection is also personal, with both his grandfather and mother having a long history with the local riding club – and hopefully that will continue “for many more generations to come.”

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD ESSAY

The grand prize winners will each receive a $500 gift card courtesy of Christopher Cantu of Kingsview Partners in Georgetown. The ten finalists will each receive a $100 gift card courtesy of the Sons of the Republic of Texas (SRT) – Moses Austin Chapter, and Buck Cole. In addition, the SRT, Texas State Historical Association, and Texas General Land Office will provide an assortment of contest prizes to all the winning students and their teachers.

All public, private and home-schooled students of appropriate age for the fourth grade or seventh grade were eligible to participate. Essays for the annual contest were judged on originality of idea, cohesiveness of thought and organization. Proper grammar, spelling and punctuation were also taken into account.

The Texas General Land Office Save Texas History™ program is a statewide initiative to rally public support and private funding for the preservation and promotion of more than 35 million historic maps and documents. With the twin goals of preservation and education, the Save Texas History program seeks to conserve these documents for future generations and educate Texans about the rich heritage found in these vital records.

R9 Regional Junior Citizen Bee 🐝

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Middle School 6th-8th grade

The Regional Junior Citizen Bee Competition (previously known as Bee in a Box) was held March 19th & 20th, 2024. Junior Citizen Bee is a middle school version of the Citizen Bee competition held at the high school level.

The competition was hosted by Law-Related Education and funded by the Sumners Foundation. Participant received gift cards and other gifts for participating. This is the 9th year for this competition.

Our region had 17 students from 2 middle schools compete in the Junior Citizen Bee competition! Thank you to our dedicated teachers for generously volunteering their limited free time to sponsor and support students in the competition.

Burkburnett Middle School students were sponsored by Katherine Najar-Tadlock:

Silas Anderle*

Cohen Ellett

Alexandra Gabor*

O'rya Henderson*

Pauleen Patio*

Knox City students were sponsored by Ricky Villanueva:

Lexi Abila

Jonah Flores*

Joshua Flores

Hunter Lerma*

Audri Perez

Hailey Phebus*

Samuel Ruiz

Bently Stroud*

Camden Swanson*

Izaiah Trevino*

*Finalist in the verbal rounds

Congratulations to the 2024 Region 9 Junior Citizen Bee winners!

1st Place - $100 gift card - Alexandra Gabor, Burkburnett ISD

2nd Place - $50 gift card - Silas Anderle, Burkburnett ISD

3rd Place - $25 gift card - Bently Stroud, Knox City-O'Brien CISD

Alexandra and Silas have qualified to compete in the second annual Junior Citizen Bee state competition! Held virtually, students from all over the state will compete on May 7th and May 8th, 2024. We wish you both the best of luck, and thank you for representing our region!

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Burkburnett Competitors

Knox City Competitors

R9 Regional Citizen Bee

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High School 9th-12th grade

Every year, students across the state compete in the Texas Citizen Bee, which is hosted by the Law Related Education department of the State Bar of Texas. The Texas Citizen Bee is a statewide civic education program and competition and is funded by the Sumners Foundation.

Students take a 35-question multiple-choice test covering content from the U.S. History EOC. The top 10 finalists advance to the verbal rounds, which require each student to answer one question from each of the following categories: 1) Constitution 2) Documents & Supreme Court Cases and 3) People & Events

Our region had 12 students from 3 high schools compete in the Citizen Bee on March 26th and 27th, 2024! We are sincerely grateful to our dedicated teacher sponsors for generously giving their limited free time to sponsor their students in the competition. Your commitment to nurturing our students' academic pursuits is deeply appreciated.

Burkburnett High School students were sponsored by Kimbra Thomas:

Cooper Ellett*+

Jordan King*

Lanna Keathley*+

Emmalee Krotzer*

Addison Ridgely*

Morgan Snay*+

Old High students were sponsored by Wendy Presson with assistance from Matthew Maldonado:

Rachael Brown*+

Hogan Hodge

Savana Sanchez*+

Jason Starks*+

Rider High School students were sponsored by Crystal Krueger:

Aiden Moses*+

Kyla Moses

*2024 Finalist in the verbal rounds

+2nd year competitor

Congratulations to our 2024 Region 9 Winners!

1st place - $250 gift card - Aiden Moses, Rider High School, WFISD

2nd place - $100 gift card - Jason Starks, Wichita Falls High School, WFISD

3rd place - $50 gift card - Morgan Snay, Burkburnett High School, BISD

Aiden is a state qualifier and will travel to Austin on Friday, April 19th to participate in the “Capitol Experience” where he will take tours of the Capitol complex and enjoy a speech from the Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court, as well as an Awards Dinner. The State Citizen Bee Competition follows on Saturday, April 20th! We want to congratulate Aiden and wish him luck in the state competition!