Winners of essay contest explore North Bay families’ histories

A night out that ended with an up-close encounter with a German soldier’s bayonet. A pursuit of normalcy despite lifelong complications from polio. A hitchhiking frolic through the north of Scotland in the 1950s. A perilous family voyage, first by boat and then by plane, from Vietnam to the United States.

These stories, passed down through generations, served as inspiration for this year’s winners of the Healdsburg Museum & Historical Society’s family history essay challenge.

“When I started (the essay contest) I envisioned it as a creative way for children to investigate their family history and practice writing,” said Holly Hoods, the museum’s executive director and head curator.

She later passed administration of the contest, which solicits entries from third through eighth graders, on to Educational Outreach Coordinator Phyllis Chiosso Liu about 10 years ago.

In normal years, the winners usually read their essays during an in-person event in the garden at the museum celebrating their achievements, with the essays on display in a case in the Wine Library at Healdsburg Regional Library.

But this year, with social distancing and sheltering at home, the students received their awards via USPS, as there were no in-person events.

Research Curator Lauren Carriere did all the work of putting the files online and creating a web page for the winners.

While the contest usually garners between 200 and 300 entries, this year, they received about 150, most likely because students were in home learning programs through their schools. The prompt for the Discover Your Family’s History essay contest read, “Write an anecdotal essay using a family story … from your family’s past. We are looking for a story about a single event in their life, not a biography.”

Essays were judged on interest to reader, research, style, spelling and grammar from a rubric created by Chiosso Liu, who for 32 years taught at Bellvue Elementary in Santa Rosa. Two local families, the Wittke family and Fred and Leota Gonzalez underwrite the prizes for the contest, which include a first place prize of $100 for each grade level. Awards are not made in categories where no essay arises to that level. All stories were limited to 250 words.

Three of the four first-place winners were available for interviews.

Siena Sbragia was a sixth grader at West Side School when she submitted her essay, “Bayonets at Night,” about her great grandfather who was born in 1901 and was stabbed by a German soldier’s bayonet when he was out past curfew in Germany during World War I. She had planned to submit the story when she was in fifth grade, but missed the deadline. She rewrote the story for this year’s submission.

Sbragia, 12, is now a seventh grade student at Healdsburg Junior High School. She interviewed her grandmother to learn her great grandfather’s story. Her parents, Kathy and Adam Sbragia, enthusiastically supported Siena in entering the contest

In addition to being a first-place winner this year, she also wrote an essay while in the fourth grade and won third place. Her interests include English and history. She also enjoys biking and plays soccer.

Lilliana Villano, whose father, Matt Villano, is also a writer for The Press Democrat, is 11 and is now in the sixth grade at Healdsburg Junior High School. Last spring, she was a student at Healdsburg Elementary’s Fitch Mountain Campus.

Villano’s essay, titled “Margaret’s Story: The Story of my Great Grandmother,” told the tale of how her ancestor contracted the polio virus in 1916 and had lifelong effects from the illness but persisted in having a normal life.

While Villano enjoys all subjects and considers herself a good student, this year her favorite class is art, with Ms. Weiss. She is attending school via Zoom, as is Sbragia. She is busy from 8:30 a.m.m to 2:30 p.m. When asked about the stories she’ll tell about the pandemic, she said, “I live in my room. The end.”

Her fifth grade teacher, Ms. Pillinini supported her students in writing for the contest, and while Villano “doesn’t like essays,” she likes family history and found it fun and exciting. In fact, two of her friends also submitted essays and they won second and third place in the contest.

“I usually don’t feel comfortable sharing my work, but I was happy sharing it because I knew it would make my dad and my grandpa happy,” said Villano, who said she is very close with her grandfather. They are in daily contact through text messages.

Her mother, Nikki Villano, reiterates that closeness. She said that while her daughter has a bond with all four of her grandparents, Lilliana is closest to her grandfather Steve. She finds “the parallels between the pandemic COVID and what Margaret’s son, Steve Villano, her grandfather-in-law, said his mother went through,” interesting.

Aubrey Phipps-Parnay is 10. Last spring she was in the fourth grade at West Side School and her teacher was Lamiel Bjorkuuist. She learned about the contest when she was in the third grade but didn’t have a chance to enter, so last spring she was excited to write the story.

Phipps-Parnay interviewed all her grandparents and wrote a story from her Grandma Arlene, called “The Mucky Ride.” In the essay, she writes of her grandmother’s hitchhiking in Scotland in the 1950s with two friends. They ended up on a truck covered with cow manure, while one of the girls got to ride inside, which was quite unpleasant, though the story elicits many laughs when told.

Phipps-Parnay continues at West Side School and is now in fifth grade. She would pick being in school over being in at home learning because she misses her friends. She looks forward to the contest next spring.

Andrew Chau Cook, 9, who took first place among third graders, detailed the migration by his mother, Helen Huong Chau-Cook, uncles and grandfather from Vietnam to the United States when his mother was just 7 years old. The journey involved a perilous trip through a storm on a rickety fishing boat, followed by an eventual flight to America.

Andrew is a fourth grade student at West Side School. His teacher last year was Ms. Kee. He is proud of how brave his family was during their ocean crossing.

“I’m very proud of him wanting to tell my story,” said his mother, Chau-Cook. She, too, wrote about the crossing while she was in high school, and an artist friend did a sketch of her to go with it.

Andrew’s father is Bob Cook, and his favorite subject in school is reading. He says he misses his friends at school, and while he’ll have stories to tell about the pandemic when he grows up, he confesses he really doesn’t like school via Zoom.

To read the winning essays, visit healdsburgmuseum.org/community-services.

Meanwhile, the Healdsburg Museum and Historical Society has had to cancel its regular gatherings and events for the rest of the year, including its popular exhibits. Along with having to cancel the essay awards ceremony, the museum has canceled its volunteer appreciation award and picnic, the History Lives dinner held in conjunction with the instant wine cellar raffle, and the museum members’ opening exhibits receptions.

Because of the hardships faced by the community, director Hoods and the museum board decided not to solicit donations. They did receive a paycheck protection program loan through their bank that enabled them to maintain their full staff, all of whom are working from home offices.

Fundraising this year will focus on the Commemorative Brick Walkway program and their usual Annual Appeal. For more information about their programs and membership, visit healdsburgmuseum.org.