Lakenheath Middle School students compete in Washington, D.C. Published June 7, 2010 By Capt. Alysia R. Harvey 48th Fighter Wing Public Affairs ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England -- Two Lakenheath Middle School students will travel to the University of Maryland near Washington, D.C. to represent the Department of Defense Schools Europe in the National History Day contest June 13 to 17. Abigail Moermond, 13-year-old daughter of Chaplain (Maj.) Timothy Moermond, 48th Fighter Wing Chapel, and Jordyn Kent, 12-year-old daughter of Lt. Col. Debbie Kent, 48th Logistics Readiness Squadron commander, will perform a 10-minute skit based on the speech, "The Crisis" by Carrie Chapman Catt, a women's suffrage leader and later the founder of the League of Women Voters and the International Alliance of Women. "We chose our topic because it was original, it was something we could inform others about and it clearly related to us being girls talking about women's suffrage," said Abigail, who's in the seventh grade. "It was a topic that we wanted to share with the world." Taking a creative spin on this year's NHD theme, "Innovations in History: Impact & Change," the girls conducted background research on the Women's Suffrage Movement and its leaders to write the script for their skit, in which Jordyn plays the part of Ms. Catt and Abigail portrays several different people and their reaction to the movement. These characters include: a reporter who interviews Ms. Catt about why she's fighting for women's right to vote; a little girl who's curious about Ms. Catt's work given that her own mother is against the movement; the mother, who scolds her for her actions; two men - one who's supportive of the cause and the other who's not; and Susan B. Anthony, another woman who played a role in the women's rights movement and a friend of Ms. Catt's. Having won first place at both the Isles District and DoDDS-Europe, these students said they've learned a lot through their research. "I learned that women didn't just want the right to vote, they wanted to fix an unjust situation in society," said Jordyn, who's also in the seventh grade. "And I learned that not all women wanted rights because they felt that if they got them, they would be less needed or appreciated in the home," added Abigail. "We also found out that children did not have their opinions, but instead they believed what their parents believed." Surprised by this fact, they went on to say that is what prompted them to add the piece about the mother and the little girl to the skit. After the ballots were cast and the scores tallied, both girls said they felt overjoyed when they learned of their victories from the school intercom announcement. "We were so happy that when we found out, we screamed and so did the other students in our class," said Abigail. As was the case with women winning the right to vote in the 19th century, these victories did not come easy. "Finding research sources since we live in England and our project was on American women's suffrage was a challenge," said Abigail. "Finding time to practice and trying to get to Germany with Mount Eyjafjallajӧkull volcano erupting also made things difficult." In fact, the volcano eruption prevented them from traveling to Germany for the DoDDS-Europe National History Day contest, and they had to send in a videotape of their skit - which could only be recorder once without editing - with a section at the end where they answered two questions sent from the contest judges. Although there were struggles, they both agreed that their principal, Mary Zimmer-Bayer, who was previously a NHD judge, was the most influential in their success. "She, along with our parents, really believed in us and thought we could go through with this all the way to the top," said Jordyn. And that they did, out of the four groups competing from LMS, only Abigail and Jordyn will be competing at the national level. "The competition is hard but a lot of fun," said Abigail. "Anyone interested in history or in learning new things would enjoy NHD."