Lincoln, Riverside and Sacred Heart Students Among the Winners
First place essay contest winner Shennaiya Rose (Lincoln High School), with her teacher Ms. Sunitha Howard at Lincoln High School. The school also won $500
Thirty-nine students from six Yonkers high schools entered the 2nd Annual Old Croton Aqueduct Essay Competition for 2024. A panel of seven local judges included a published author, a poet and radio show host, plus board members of the Friends.
The winning students are:
- First Prize: Shennaiya Rose (Lincoln High School), “Mr. J and the Croton
Aqueduct” - Second Prize: Taylor-Rae Smith (Lincoln High School), “Camp Aqueduct”
- Third Prize: Francheska Cortes (Sacred Heart High School), “Clarity by
the Wind” - Additional Recognition: Chiwendu Matthew (Riverside High School), “The
Year 1832.
Their essays will soon be published at www.aqueduct.org.
Each contestant earned the judges’ praise for creativity! Students at Gorton, Barack Obama School for Social Justice and Yonkers Middle High School used Aqueduct history to tell stories that were funny, scary,
reflective and fun to read.
In addition to a monetary prize for each essay winner and their school, awardees will earn a free trip for their class to the Croton Dam or the Ossining Weir, where students can descend through rock blasted with primitive gunpowder into the tunnel itself.
Dynamite was not invented until 1867; the aqueduct tunnel was finished in 1842. Many Irish immigrants who built the tunnel stayed in Westchester for the rest of their lives. Several writers captured this important history with vivid pieces about Irish ancestors, lost diaries and ghostly crypt encounters.
The Old Croton Aqueduct State Historic Park is a linear, 26-mile-long trail in Westchester County, New York. From the Croton Dam to The Bronx, the trail passes through twelve towns of distinct character. People say that one walks back in time as the Aqueduct leads north and away from New York City. It is a byway beloved by locals and day-trippers.
More than seven miles of trail wind through Yonkers, with scenic views of the Palisades cliffs, Tibbetts Brook Park and the late Victorian architecture of the city. The trail also gives easy access to the award-winning, daylighted downtown Saw Mill River Park.
The Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct, at www.aqueduct.org. is a nonprofit volunteer organization formed to protect and preserve the Old Croton Aqueduct in both Westchester County and New York City.
