Bryan County students have an opportunity to enjoy a science fiction adventure and maybe earn some cash expressing their ideas in an essay about the novel White Wing, by Gordon Kendall. 

The contest, sponsored with a donation from a library patron, will offer two first-place prizes of  $350, two second-place prizes of  $200, and two-third place prizes of  $100.  A set of prizes will be awarded from the Richmond Hill Public Library and the Pembroke Public Library.                

Several paperback copies of White Wing are available in both libraries, and the deadline for essay submission is May 30.  All Bryan County students ages 14-17 are welcome to participate.  Entry forms are available in the libraries, on their Facebook pages, and onstrl.info, the website for the Statesboro Regional Public Libraries.

The essay topic asks students to draw parallels between situations in White Wing and challenges faced by our culture/society today.   A panel from each library’s community will judge the essays based on clarity of expression, good writing skills, and depth of appreciation for ideas expressed in the book.  Essays must be three typewritten pages, double-spaced.

Richmond Hill resident Mark Youngblood donated money for the prizes and library book purchases in honor of the US Secret Service, Lemuel and Nita Johns, and Wayne and Peggy Youngblood.  Rufus W. (Wayne) Youngblood and Lemuel Johns were both agents with Vice President Lyndon Johnson’s Secret Service detail on that dark day when President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.  Mark Youngblood has also sponsored a similar essay contest through a Connecticut public library using the novel Freedom Road.