Wasmuth’s patriotism runs deep

September 8, 2016

By David Nordby The Brillion News

REEDSVILLE – Reedsville’s Whitney Wasmuth recently won the Reedsville AMVETS State Essay Contest and eventually became a national winner too.

“It’s how I feel about our country and our flag represents us,” Wasmuth said. “With all that’s going on in our country, I wish we could come together as one. We sometimes don’t realize how lucky we are to have the freedoms we have.”

The win was well earned – she’s been entering since she was in kindergarten. For lower grade students, it’s a flag drawing contest that her sister, Lexi, won at the state and national levels and Whitney wanted to join the family lineage where first place winners at state go onto nationals and now she can say she did it.

Wasmuth found out she was the state winner when she returned from a vacation and then a week later, she found out she was the national winner too.

Wasmuth’s family patriotism is what helped inspire her all along. Her grandfather, Dale, is in the AMVETS in Reedsville and her other grandpa, Ron, was in the American Legion in Brillion.

“I come from a very patriotic family,” Wasmuth said. After Ron passed away, her grandmother, Dorothy, made it a point to bring the grandkids to the cemetery at Wayside every Memorial Day, a tradition that has been in the family since the 1970’s. “When my grandpa passed away my grandma made it a tradition that all of her kids and grandkids get together and continue to do it. I learned quite young what Memorial Day meant and why we honored those men and women.”

Please see the complete story, and Wasmuth’s award winning essay, in the September 8, 2016 edition of The Brillion News.