6^th, 7^th, and 8^th graders, the 2026 National Civics Bee is calling you

Middle School stu­dents, do you have what it takes to make a dif­fer­ence in Winchester/ Clark County? Are you will­ing to write an essay that iden­ti­fies a com­mu­ni­ty prob­lem or oppor­tu­ni­ty? One that rec­og­nizes a solu­tion to the prob­lem and address­es the oppor­tu­ni­ty. Does the res­o­lu­tion include the basic premise and prin­ci­ples of civic virtues? Would you like to win up to $100,000? Participate in the 2026 National Civics Bee competition.

The National Civics Bee is a non-par­ti­san event to empow­er mid­dle school stu­dents, encour­age civics knowl­edge, engage in their com­mu­ni­ties, con­tribute, and build trust. Students will improve their writ­ing skills, pub­lic speak­ing abil­i­ties and become more con­cerned and involved cit­i­zens. All the infor­ma­tion you need is avail­able at www.Nationalcivicsbee.org. Included there you will find links to a stu­dent essay guide, an edu­ca­tor and par­ent guide, a stu­dent fly­er, and a link for dig­i­tal submission.

The National Chamber of Commerce Foundation in coöper­a­tion with Civic Trust, the Daniels Fund, the Kentucky Chamber, the Winchester Chamber, and oth­ers are encour­ag­ing mid­dle school­ers (pub­lic, pri­vate, home­school, char­ter) to sub­mit a 500 ‑750-word essay before February 3^rd, 2026. There are six local dis­tricts in Kentucky. Each of the local dis­trict win­ners will receive $500, sec­ond $250 and third $125. District win­ners will advance to the Kentucky state finals in August at the Kentucky State Fair. There the win­ner will receive $1,000, sec­ond $500, and third $250. All state win­ners will par­tic­i­pate in next year’s fall finals where first place is a $100,000 529 plan. Round one is the essay. Round two the local dis­trict will be held in Mason County; it con­sists of two rounds of civics ques­tions and a Q&A round. The State finals is a live event of three rounds of civics questions.

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The Kentucky 2025 National Civics Bee win­ner, Ava Bogard a Calloway County High School fresh­man fin­ished fifth in the National Civics Bee National Championship held in Washington, D.C. on November 11^th.Bogard rep­re­sent­ed Kentucky in the nation­al bee after win­ning the state cham­pi­onship as an eighth grad­er in the spring. During her speech at the National Civics Bee finals, Bogard addressed the issue of crim­i­nal vot­er dis­en­fran­chise­ment, argu­ing that restor­ing vot­ing rights to for­mer felons strength­ens both democ­ra­cy and society.

This year’s National cham­pi­on from more than 7,000 entries was an Ohio mid­dle school­er, Aarit Koul. You can view a replay of this amaz­ing com­pe­ti­tion on the National Chamber’s You Tube channel.

Robert D. Campbell Principal, Tiffany Smith said “In a world that con­stant­ly demands engage­ment, the Civics Bee chal­lenges our young peo­ple to under­stand the foun­da­tion­al prin­ci­ples that shape our gov­ern­ment and com­mu­ni­ty. It asks them to think crit­i­cal­ly about local issues and pro­pose cre­ative, action­able solu­tions, direct­ly con­nect­ing class­room learn­ing to real-world impact. We are call­ing on all stu­dents to embrace this chance to deep­en their civic knowl­edge, hone their pub­lic speak­ing skills, and tru­ly dis­cov­er the pow­er of their own voice.

While this is Winchester/ Clark Counties’ sec­ond effort to fos­ter this excit­ing edu­ca­tion­al event we hope it is a huge suc­cess. To encour­age local essays the Chamber of Commerce put togeth­er a Clark County award. Clark County essays will be entered into a ran­dom draw­ing for a local cash prize. Any local stu­dent who enters the nation­al con­test should send the local Chamber a copy of the essay to be entered.

The Winchester Clark County Chamber of Commerce is proud to sup­port this ini­tia­tive as anoth­er com­mu­ni­ty activ­i­ty that ben­e­fits every­one and involves Chamber members.