Kasen VanOverbeke won first place in this year’s contest. Isabel Christiansen took second, and Grant Nielsen was awarded third place.

The 4-Way essay contest asks students to write about values in life, whether that be through personal experiences or giving further explanation and reasoning.

“One of the things with Rotary, is we believe in service before self. That’s our our mission,” Marshall rotary president Tony Thiesen said. “The 4-way test becomes our values of doing the right thing, and doing it for the right purpose.”

Specifically, the 4-Way test asks the questions and gets students thinking about truth, fairness, building goodwill and better friendships, and ensuring beneficiality to all concerned.

Photo by Samantha Davis: Marshall sixth grade student Isabel Christiansen recieves her second-place award for the 4-Way essay contest from rotary president Tony Thiesen Thursday afternoon.

Prior to each winner’s announcement, the students enthusiastically did a collective drum role.

There was also a monetary award given to the students, with $50 going to third place, $75 to second and $100 for first place.

“Rotary is a big service organization. We do service projects all over the world, in 200 different countries, and it’s all volunteers,” Thiesen said. “It’s us, it could be your neighbors, it could be friends. There’s college students and high school students also involved in Rotary. So, it’s a lot of people doing volunteer service projects.”

In VanOverbeke’s winning essay, he wrote about the Ten Commandments in life and emphasized the importance of the standards regarding truth, goodwill, following rules and supporting one another.

Christiansen wrote about a personal experience in trying something new, and the lesson she took from that experience that will carry over through life.

Photo by Samantha Davis: Marshall sixth grade student Grant Nielsen shakes hands with rotary president Tony Thiesen after winning third place in this year's 4-Way essay contest Thursday afternoon.

Specifically, Christiansen talked about going to Shetek Lutheran Ministries last summer with her friends and church, but realized the timeline overlapped with her last softball tournament that she didn’t want to miss. But, Christiansen followed through with going with the week-long camp, and returned back home to find out the softball tournament moved dates so she was able to attend both in the end.

Although noting she was anxious about going to camp, Christiansen detailed how she was happy that she chose to go because she made a handful of new friends and gave the advice that if you have an opportunity to go do something new, always pursue it, as it can make you a better person.

Nielsen’s essay touched on each principle of the 4-Way test, and how he came to learn a little bit about each moral in recent times, and how it all comes together. When it comes to truthfulness, he wrote about how his pastor showcases that.

For fairness, Nielsen talked about an example like if one’s siblings gets an extra present during Christmas, but to remember that they are still your family.

Nielsen also wrote about seeing the Salvation Army bell ringers at Hy-Vee over the winter in regards to building goodwill, and remembered how they were raising money for the community and engaging in conversation with people walking by.

Photo by Samantha Davis: Marshall sixth grade students (left to right) Kasen VanOverbeke, Isabel Christiansen and Grant Nielsen stand with their award certificates after being announced as this year's 4-Way contest winners by the Marshall Rotary Club Thursday afternoon.

One by one, each student was welcomed to the front of the theater to receive their award while being cheered on by their classmates, and were congratulated by Rotary members.