Borough Wide
Skoal!
Move over, Ralph Waldo Emerson, there’s a whole new crop of writers in town. Put your hands together for budding essayists Peter Russo and Muhammad Ali, this year’s winners of the Scandinavian East Coast Museum’s annual Essay Contest.
Local students were tasked with the challenge of writing about the importance of the role that the Norwegian Merchant Marines played in World War II.
After reading many submissions, judges Sylvia Reich and Lois Berseth Hedlund selected Peter Russo, who hails from Leif Ericson Day School in Dyker Heights, and Muhammad Ali, a student at the Edward B. Shallow Junior High School in Bensonhurst, as this year’s stand-out writers.
The winning essays will be published in the Norwegian Day Parade Journal on May 17, and the winners will ride on the museum’s float, Viking ship replica The Norseman, on Sunday, May 20.
Edward J. Shallow Junior High School [6500 16th Ave. in Bensonhurst, (718) 256–8218], Leif Ericson Day School [1037 72nd St. in Dyker Heights, (718) 748–9023].
