Spotlight on Education: Palmetto Youth Center's MLK Essay Contest Winners

MANATEE COUNTY – The School District of Manatee County is proud to announce the winners of the annual Palmetto Youth Center MLK Essay Contest. Hundreds of students submitted essays with their interpretation of a quote from the Civil Rights leader, ”Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.“ -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

A panel of judges from the Palmetto Youth Center Board of Directors, along with Joan Krauter from the Bradenton Herald, listened to students deliver their speeches and chose winners on Thursday, January 7, 2016.

Tyrese Galloway, a junior at State College of Florida Collegiate School, was the overall winner for high schools. Sully Malley, a seventh-grader at R. Dan Nolan Middle School won the middle school category. They were chosen from 31 finalists. A total of 286 students from Manatee County submitted essays to the contest.

Galloway and Malley won $150, a new Dell laptop computer and a printer. Both will also read their speeches at the Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Banquet on Friday, January 15, 1016 at 7 p.m. at the Palmetto Youth Center, 501 17th Street West, Palmetto.

The following students also won cash prizes in the essay contest: High School – Destiny Daughterty, Manatee School for the Arts, Second Place; Paula Jean, Bayshore High School, Third Place; and Jalynne Brown, Manatee High School, Honorable Mention. Middle School – Bethshida Jean, Sara Scott Harllee Middle School, Second Place; Harmony Brown, Oasis Middle School and Erika Blue, Buffalo Creek Middle School, who tied for Third Place.