Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 776 Commander Gary Harris (right) presents an award to Radford High School student Abby Barnes (left) for her third place district win in the VFW’s national Voice of Democracy essay contest. Barnes won first place at the local level for her essay on this year’s theme of ”Is This the Country the Founders Envisioned?” The VFW Voice of Democracy audio essay program has been awarding scholarship funds to teens in the U.S.for more than 70 years. Participants write an essay based on a yearly theme and then record themselves reading the essay. Those recordings are judged by members of the VFW.