By Rebekah Whirledge
Staff Writer
[email protected]

The 500 Festival announced Monday that the winner of the 2012 
Education Program Essay Contest is Adrianna Clark, fourth grader at 
Syracuse Elementary School. The 500 Festival received nearly 1,000 
entries from fourth grade students across the state.

The prompt for the essay contest asked students to imagine they had 
been selected to recommend a Grand Marshal for the IPL 500 Festival 
Parade. For this essay, the chosen Grand Marshal could be a Hoosier 
from the past or present.
Students were asked to describe why this 
person deserved to be the Grand Marshal. The 300-word essays were 
judged on the basis of focused ideas, compelling word choice, strong 
voice and standard writing principles.
Clark chose James Whitcomb Riley as her Grand Marshal candidate. In 
her essay, Clark told how she first became interested in the Hoosier 
poet while a patient at Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis. 
Clark’s interest led her to research Riley and his well-known 
children’s poems like “Little Orphan Annie” and “The Raggedy Man,” 
which inspired the Raggedy Ann doll.
For her winning essay, Clark will receive a 500 Festival gift pack 
including four tickets to the IPL 500 Festival Parade and four 
tickets to the Indianapolis 500.
Her teacher, Kris Long, will also receive two qualification tickets 
and two tickets to the IPL 500 Festival Parade. Long was the one who 
encouraged Clark to enter the essay contest.
Clark’s fourth grade class celebrated her accomplishment with a party 
Tuesday.