Hazen student wins competition
By Daniel Arens
Out of 760 essays from seventh graders around the state of North Dakota, one Hazen student shone out and took the first prize.
Sloane McCray wrote an essay describing what she would do if she could be mayor of Hazen for a day.
“I wrote about making a community garden for Hazen, making a place to hang out,” Sloane said.
All seventh graders in Lisa Gusewelle’s class wrote their own essays to be submitted for the League of Cities of North Dakota’s “Mayor for a Day” competition.
“She told us we were going to do this paper thing,” Sloane said. “We did it mostly in class.”
Sloane was not expecting to be announced the statewide winner.
“Over the intercom, they announced that someone from Hazen Middle School had won. I thought, you know, it might be one of my friends, that would be cool. And then they announced my name. I paused, looked up, and everyone’s staring at me.”
This Friday, Sloane traveled to the North Dakota Capitol in Bismarck, where she met with several mayors, legislators, and Governor Doug Burgum. One of the mayors was Hazen’s own, Jerry Obenauer.
“[Obenauer] just congratulated me, asked me about what I wrote for the essay,” Sloane said.
