Delaware’s Caroline Grow took home $500 and the second place finish in the 2024 Lafayette Essay Contest.
A Delaware youth who just finished the fourth grade just came in second place in a national writing competition about the Marquis de Lafayette.
Through the process, she gained admiration for the selflessness and bravery of the subject of her essay.
Caroline Grow, now a rising-fifth-grader at Wilmington’s St. Mary Magdalen School took home the silver in the 2024 Lafayette Essay Contest, which is organized by The American Friends of Lafayette .
The contest, open to fourth- and fifth-graders, aims to help America’s youth learn about the Lafayette and his contributions to American Independence.
It’s also meant to endear the next generation to America’s first friend and ally of France to understand Lafayette’s legacy as well as helping children understand his impact on their lives today.
“I liked the fact that he was 18 when he started to help out in America, and he was very young,” Caroline said. “How he wanted to help America, even though he’s from France, was interesting to me.”
Notably, Lafayette, a french soldier, was allowed to command America’s Continental Army in the decisive siege of Yorktown in 1781, which was the Revolutionary War’s final major battle that secured American independence.
Once he returned to France, he was a key figure in the French Revolution in 1789 and later the July Revolution of 1830.
Another nugget of the contest is to promote the 2024-2025 bicentennial of Lafayette’s Farewell Tour.
It will visit 24 states over the next year, starting in August in New York City.
That’s where Caroline will read and present her essay in front of a crowd at a meeting for the American Friends of Lafayette.
And while the $500 prize money for coming in second was a happy ending, she said it wasn’t why she entered the contest – she just loves to write and to compete.
Her mom, Laura, playfully said that they first saw a flyer for the contest at the Brandywine Hundred Library , and the prize money definitely caught Caroline’s attention.
“In 2025 it’s the 200th anniversary of Lafayette coming back to America, his victory corps when he came back,” Laura said, “and so throughout the next year, the group is pretty much going through every stop that he made along the way and having celebrations at each point.”
She said since her daughter spent months on research and writing, she’s noticed more landmarks that show the impact and importance of Lafayette.
“And as a family, we learned so much about Lafayette, and now we’re realizing he’s everywhere,” she said. “We’re up in Portland, New Hampshire and we saw a Lafayette statue marker there, and we ran into a girl that goes to Lafayette College. Suddenly, it’s just like when something’s on your mind, it’s everywhere, and so that was pretty cool to have him suddenly part of our life.”
The essay was structured like a typical elementary school five-paragraph paper: an introduction and conclusion, and the middle three paragraphs had to be Lafayette’s biography, his importance during the American Revolution and his importance to Americans now.
Laura said she is proud of her daughter’s commitment, as she spent countless hours online and reading about Lafayette.
And while her daughter is achieving national recognition before even reaching middle school, Caroline has no clue or plan on her future and is just enjoying being a kid.
However, she did say she loves art and could see herself maybe becoming an artist.
“To me, this achievement means a lot, to know that out of all those people, I researched it hard enough to come out in second,” Caroline said.
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