Update 10 a.m. Wednesday
Thank you, everyone, for voting in this contest. All votes cast prior to 8 p.m. Tuesday will count. We are tallying those votes now and will announce our winners Friday. We will post a new Winners article to our Fairfield County Patch sites, notify all finalists and post a comment with a link to that Winners article here, which will auto-notify all of those who cast votes. Thank you, again, for joining VolunteerSquare and Patch in celebrating community service and these remarkable teens in Fairfield County.
Update 6 p.m. Monday
Because we have heard from some Patch readers that they've had problems navigating the platform to cast their votes—and we want to be triple-sure that every single person who wants to voice support for these amazing teens is heard from—VolunteerSquare and Patch are extending the deadline for voting by 24 hours, to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, May 14.
Thank you again to our wonderful essayists and to all of you who are participating in the voting.
Original Post
THANK YOU to all of the terrific students who submitted essays for this, the inaugural VolunteerSquare.com high school contest, celebrating community service among Fairfield County youth.
To read the essays of our 10 finalists, just click on the links below.
To vote, just post a comment on this article that includes the number, listed below, associated with the finalist for whom you are voting (‘1,’ ‘2,’ ‘3,’ etc.) Voting will take place in this article alone and is limited to one person per finalist per day, and closes at 8 p.m. on May 13 (see attached PDF of rules for more details). This voting article is on all Patch sites involved in the contest.
1. Danny Ross, Greenwich High School, 11th grade
2. Anthea Taeuber, Joel Barlow High School, 10th grade
3. Jordan Cohen, Convent of the Sacred Heart, 10th grade
4. Fiona Risom, New Canaan High School, 10th grade
5. Sarah Maddox, New Canaan High School, 10th grade
6. Jeff Donofrio, Fairfield Prep, 10th grade
7. Sydney Sagman, Brien McMahon High School, 11th grade
8. Alex Rayhill, Darien High School, 11th grade
9. Drew Lord, St. Luke’s School, 11th grade
10. Chase Smith, Wilton High School, 11th grade
VolunteerSquare and its advisory board judged essays as per the posted rules, and reviewed them “blind,” with no knowledge of the gender, age, town or school involved in each submission.
"We at VolunteerSquare.com are so touched by the overwhelming, heartfelt and thoughtful responses to our inaugural Community Service essay contest. Selecting the top ten finalists was a very difficult job!," said Rachel Reese, VolunteerSquare.com Executive Director. "We are so proud of the many students who volunteer in our communities and we sincerely appreciate everyone who took the time to share their experience with us. Good luck to the finalists!"
VolunteerSquare.com is a free service for Fairfield County residents and nonprofits. The site offers immediate, real-time matching as well as a social networking platform where registered users can share unique content like photos, videos and more—all related to volunteering.
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