David Orr, a fifth grader at Crestline Elementary, won the Tennessee Valley Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution's annual poster contest. | Special to the Enquirer

Hartselle students nearly completed a sweep of the awards in the Tennessee Valley Chapter of Sons of the American Revolution’s poster contest.

The three Hartselle schools took first, second and fourth in the competition.

David Orr, a fifth grader at Crestline Elementary, won first place. John Gentle, a fifth grade student in Susan Hogan’s class at Barkley Bridge Elementary School.

A student at F.E. Burleson Elementary also took fourth place.

Students in the contest had to create a poster about the Declaration of Independence. There were 61 school entries in the contest.

Orr, the son of John David and Mary Orr, said he started his project with questions about the declaration. That included queries such as which colony chose not to approve the declaration, the name of the group who wrote the declaration, the person who was first to it and what happened to the Continental Congress after the declaration was signed.

He created flip cards for those 10 questions along with five flip cards representing the five parts of the declaration. The signers’ names also made up the border of the poster.

That helped him win a $100 cash prize and also a $100 grant for his teacher, Wendy Crow.

“I was very surprised to learn I won the contest,” Orr said. “I don’t know what I’m going with the money.”

Gentle decided to do a poster he entitled “I We Decide” with an “X” over the I. He also chose a color poster to help it stand out.

He said he wrote facts about the declaration on index cards.

After learning of his victory, he has yet to decide how he will spend his $75 cash prize.

Orr’s poster will now be entered in the state contest, according to Robert Anderson, vice president of the Tennessee Valley Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution . If he wins, it will then be entered in the national contest, where the winning poster will stay at the SAR headquarters for a year and the poster will be made into a tie for members to wear.

“The father of the student who had the national winning poster gets the first tie,” Anderson said.