Gauge Richards from High Springs Community School recently took home second place in the Florida Retired Educators Association (FREA) 2025 Fifth Grade Essay Contest for his piece titled “Why My Grandparents Are the Best.”
According to the FREA website, the competition “was created to encourage writing abilities in Fifth Grade Students.”
The contest is also a great way “for students to show appreciation and love for the important older people in their lives …” according to the website.
Richards’ essay was submitted to FREA after he placed first in the Alachua County Retired Educators Association (ACREA) essay competition. He presented his essay at the State Florida Retired Educators Association Convention in May at the World Golf Conference Center in St. Augustine.  

Jan Slean was the ACREA committee chair for the student contest, which is held every year and open to all fifth graders in Alachua County.

In his award-winning essay, Richards wrote that his grandpa, Quiton Howe, is the best “because he always takes time off of work or spends his own time doing something I want to do.”

Richards shared that he and Howe have spent some of that time rebuilding a truck that will eventually be his first truck.

He also wrote that his grandma, Sandra Howe, is important to him because she is “loving and caring” like his grandpa.

Richards shared that both his grandma and grandpa have always been there for him and have been models to be there for others.

To read Richards’ entire essay, as well as the other award winners’ pieces, visit www.frea.org/5th-grade-essay-contest/.