The theme of this year’s contest, “Be the Change,” was designed to encourage children to be excited about the prospect of change because positive change means that we are moving forward as individuals and a community, toward a better future. Students from grades one through twelve were encouraged to submit original stories, poems or artwork that depicted this message.
Kayla’s winning essay was featured in the May 6th Special Kid’s Day edition of the Honolulu Advertiser. She is the daughter of Tyler Ippongi, class of 1983.
Congratulations to Kayla for her achievement and a special thank you to Mrs. Desiree Ichiki-Igarashi for her encouragement and guidance in this endeavor. Attached is a copy of her award- winning essay.
Be the Change
“America this is our moment. This is our time to turn the page of the policies of the past.” Barack Obama exclaimed, as his eloquent words reverberated throughout the crowd. “Yes we can!” He added. These are just some of the powerful quotes from our 44th American president, Barack Obama. He shows me and inspires me that anything is possible if you try, for who knew that 146 years after the Emancipation Proclamation was announced, that we would have our first African American president.
Instead of standing back and watching things happen, Barack Obama made things happen. And us as American citizens, we need to do the same. We cannot sit back and relax, while we know that our world is in such a recession, and global warming is flashing right before our eyes. We should be ashamed of ourselves for ruining God’s most beautiful creation and taking advantage of it. We should be grateful enough that God gave us the chance to inhabit one of his most exquisite creations.
If you know things are wrong, stand up for it, don’t shy out, make it change, make it right. At this moment America has a complication with poverty. We normally walk right past them; instead we should help them or volunteer at the homeless shelter. And for global warming, people don’t think it’s a big deal. If we realize the harm we are doing to the earth, we can save it by just changing our routine very briefly, like recycling or taking shorter showers.
Just as Barack Obama said, “We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.” But none of that can happen if all of us don’t take part. No matter how old or how young we are, we can change things and make it better, little by little, day by day, and we can change.
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