Groton — Club 20 will be open on Thanksgiving Day at 11 a.m. for our members who have no local family or just want to get out. This is a pot luck event and Thanksgiving dishes are welcome.

Branch 20 invites all area students in seventh through 12th grade to participate in the Fleet Reserve Association's 2018–19 Americanism Essay Contest.

Participants are invited to submit a 350-word essay centered on this year's theme: What Freedom of Speech Means to Me. This national contest, sponsored by the FRA to promote a spirit of patriotism among America's youth, offers a Grand National Prize of $5,000, with other recognition in each grade category.

Winners are selected at the branch level in each grade category, which are then forwarded to compete against winners from other branches in the Northeast/New England Region. Regional winners are then forwarded to the Association's National Americanism Committee, where first-, second- and third-place winners are selected in each grade category. The Grand National Winner is selected from this elite group of writers and receives a $5,000 cash award.

Essays must be legibly written or typed on one side of the paper and each entry must include a cover sheet stating the entrant's name, address, telephone number, name of school (or "home schooled") and grade, the number of words in the essay, and name of the sponsoring member or branch.

Rules for the contest as well as the cover sheet can be found on the FRA's home page at www.fra.org/essay.

All entries must be postmarked no later than Dec. 1.