City of CL announces winners of patch, scholarship contests

Contests the City of Canyon Lake sponsored recently have their winners. Sam Bock won a $1,500 scholarship after his essay was selected as the winner of the city’s best essay scholarship contest. And 11-year-old Jaedan Acuna was named the winner of the contest for designing the new Canyon Lake Fire Department uniform patch.

Although Jaedan was named the winner of the patch contest, fire department personnel will take elements from several of the patch submissions and will use them in the official new patch.

“The fire chief and I discussed the best way to move forward with the submissions,” City of Canyon Lake City Manager Chris Mann said. “We will be taking all the received submissions and incorporating them into the design for the new patch.”

The city announced that Jaedan was the winner of the patch contest and he will be honored by the city when the official patch design is unveiled at the July City Council Meeting. The new patch will be representative of the city and will be worn for decades to come, the city said. The patch will be worn by each firefighter on the left shoulder of their uniform.

The City of Canyon Lake essay contest consisted of participants submitting their résumés and writing a 500-to-750-word essay on a unique challenge faced by local governments as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Essays were to explain what each author thought his or her local government did well in responding to this challenge and what could have been done differently. Also included were what lessons could be taken from this experience, and how local governments could better respond to similar emergencies in the future.

Sam, the essay winner chosen by the essay Ad Hoc Committee, will be recognized and presented with the $1,500 check at the July City Council Meeting.