A place in history: Barrington 8th grader Bob Gienko is four for four in the annual essay contest sponsored by the Daughters of the American Revolution. The son of Robert and Sandy Gienko, Bob has won his local and divisional essay contests for his grade level four years in a row and just won the state contest for the second year in a row. He took home national honors last year for his essay on Lydia Barrington Darragh, a little-known heroine of the American Revolution.
“This year my main goal was to win the division. Beyond that, it’s just icing on the cake,” Bob said. The topic of this year’s contest was famous landmarks of the American Revolution. Bob chose to write about Yorktown, the site of the last major battle of the Revolutionary War. “As I said at the end of my essay, American independence was conceived with the signing of the Declaration of Independence, but it was born at Yorktown,” Bob explained.
“He’s really quite a remarkable young man,” said Lynette McNeil, regent of the Libertyville chapter of the DAR and American History chairman for the northern Illinois division. “I’m really impressed with all of the essays we get. Looking back over the years, I wonder if I could have done an essay like this,” she added.