More than 50 Tidewater Oyster Gardeners Association members who attended the virtual annual membership meeting on Jan. 9 heard from “extraordinary” middle school students who won this year’s TOGA and C&F Bank essay contest this year, a release said.

The judges recognized five winning essays, TOGA said.

Carina Pallo, a home-schooled eighth grader in Richmond, took first place. Jordan Sadeg, a sixth grader at Thomas Hunter Middle School, placed second. Fellow THMS sixth grader Hunter Owens received third place. Peasley Middle School seventh grader Shyanne Carlton and Aiden Major, an eighth grader at St. Clare Walker Middle School in Middlesex both received honorable mention.

To read the essays or to see these young people reading them, go to oystergardeners.org, and click on Youth Writers 2020.

Awards were $500, $250, and $100 for the top three essays. Each of the honorable mention essayists will receive $50. In addition, each winner will receive a TOGA T-shirt and cap, ...