Winners in 2017 Young Historians Project: Karen Ellegood, Jessica Barnett, Wes Carter, Rhett Dalton, Garrett Ward

What do Loretta Lynn, Lou Gehrig, Lucille Ball, Marilyn Monroe and Secretariat have in common?

Besides all being famous, their lives were profiled in speeches and power point presentations by the five seventh grade finalists in the Young Historians Project.

Karen Ellegood earned first place with her powerpoint presentation on film star Marilyn Monroe. Ellegood chose Monroe because she worked hard to achieve her goals.

Shown at right, second place went to Jessica Barnett who chose "Lucy Ball" later known as Lucille Ball. Jessica included a video of I Love Lucy's funniest moments that had the audience laughing. Third place was split among Wes Carter for Lou Gehrig, Rhett Dalton for Loretta Lynn and Garrett Ward for Secretariat. The judges said that the margins were so razor thin that they wanted to recognize all of the students. The top five students received money awards contributed by the Historical Society and the Arts Council.

The students this year brought memorabilia and personal insights to support their research. Garrett Ward shared that his interest in Secretariat began with the knowledge his mother was a Derby Princess. Barnett explored the religious journey of Lucille Ball in her presentation. Shown below, Dalton treated the audience to a vintage video of Kentucky native Loretta Lynn singing "Coal Miner's Daughter."

At left, Wes Carter spoke on Gehrig, the Pride of the Yankees, while holding a baseball bat.

Young Historians Project is a cooperative effort of Hickman County Historical & Genealogical Society, Hickman County Middle School teacher Allison Kelly and librarian Karen Stairs, Hickman County Extension Service Paula McCuiston and the Hickman County Arts Council.

Seventh grade students choose a historical figure or event to spend several months researching with the assistance of Historical Society members. LaDonna Lathem went into Kelly's classroom to help the forty plus seventh graders in Ms. Kelly's class.

In its third year, Young Historians' Project was the brainchild of Ivan Potter, chair of the Historical Society. Potter told the sixty plus parents, grandparents and well wishers at the dinner on May 11^th that the program is a way to get students involved in learning about their own history.

Back at school during the last week before summer vacation, Ms. Kelly's class was treated to cupcakes and awarded medals for their participation in Young Historians.

The study of history has both intrinsic -learning about the past and extrinsic rewards -money, medals and cupcakes.