08/23/2026
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18w1KNW3tQ/
At VFW Auxiliary National Headquarters, we've received a number of questions about our Scholarships and Programs, one of which keeps coming up: "Why can't I find information about Illustrating America under Scholarships in MALTA or on the VFW Auxiliary website?"
The answer is... it's not a scholarship! Illustrating America is a contest for students in grades K-8. The top three National winners in each grade category (K-2, 3-5, 6-8) are each awarded a gift card, not a scholarship, and this contest was created in 2019-2020 by the then-National Youth Activities Ambassador, therefore, information about it can be found under Youth Activities.
We admit, this can be confusing - especially because both of our art scholarships have "contest" in the name, and because the VFW's Patriot's Pen is an "annual youth essay contest," according to their description, but we report all three of those under Scholarships, along with Continuing Education and the VFW Voice of Democracy.
But it may help to remember that Illustrating America is the only one of these contests that allows kindergarten through fifth graders to enter, and, unlike their teen and tween siblings, these kiddos aren't looking all the way ahead to college yet.
Find more about Illustrating America and our other Youth Activities initiatives and activities here: https://vfwauxiliary.org/what-we-do/youth-activities/
Find all you need to know about Scholarships here: https://vfwauxiliary.org/what-we-do/scholarships-2/
We hope this helps!
