Missoula Hellgate High School junior Maizy Miller recently won a statewide contest for her essay on American Red Cross founder Clara Barton and will receive an expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., this summer.

Each year the Montana Electric Cooperatives’ Association holds an essay contest to select one student from across Montana who will get a paid trip to the nation’s capital as part of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association Youth Tour.

This year’s essay contest question was: If you could have dinner with one prominent Washington, D.C., figure, whether from the past or present, who would that person be and why?

Maizy chose Barton, a Civil War nurse who founded the American Red Cross in 1881. 

Maizy's winning essay recently appeared in Rural Montana, a magazine produced by the Montana Electric Cooperatives’ Association. Her selection fittingly comes during March, which is Red Cross Month and Women’s History Month.

 “I was inspired to write about Clara Barton because she was fearless,” Maizy said. “In a time when a woman’s roles were limited outside the home, she volunteered on Civil War battlefields and founded the American Red Cross. I play hockey on the Missoula boy’s team so I know that sometimes can be hard to be a girl in male-dominated spaces. Clara Barton is a role model that inspires all of us to follow our dreams and better the communities around us, no matter who we are.”

Here is Maizy's winning essay:

A schoolteacher, a civil war hero, a nurse, a humanitarian; Clara Barton dedicated herself to her country even before she had the ability to vote in it. Most people would probably not recognize the name Clara Barton if they came across it, but they would recognize the legacy she left behind.

You will recognize Clara’s work in the school gym emergency shelter set-up for wildfire evacuees of a raging Montana wildfire. You will recognize her work when a car accident victim needs donated blood in an emergency room. You will recognize her work when victims of hurricanes need clean water, or when a drowning victim is given CPR by a person who took a lifesaving class. If I were to have dinner with any Washington, D.C., figure, past or present, it would be a great honor to share a table with Ms. Clarissa Harlowe Barton, the founder of the American Red Cross.

Born in North Oxford, Massachusetts, in 1821, Clara was such an anxious and shy child, and her parents tried many ways to cure her extreme shyness. As a teen, they encouraged her to become a schoolteacher to get used to being around people (I am also not the loudest person in the room). So, at 18 years old, Clara became a teacher, and at age 24 she founded a school for mill workers. Then, she established the first free school in New Jersey.

Interested in D.C. Civil Service, in 1854 Clara became the first woman clerk hired by the U.S. Patent Office. When the Civil War broke out, she quit her job and started managing supplies to Union soldiers. Granted special rights to provide supplies directly to battlefields, Clara was at major Civil War battles in Maryland, Virginia and South Carolina. Short of nurses at these bloody battles, Clara jumped in to help, earning her the nickname by wounded soldiers, “The Angel of the Battlefield.”

At the battlefields, Clara began writing letters for hundreds of wounded, dying and missing soldiers, trying to connect them to their families.

Returning to Washington, D.C., after the war, she continued this important mission. Realizing the importance of locating lost soldiers, President Abraham Lincoln asked her to form a task force and lead the Bureau of Records of Missing Men of the Armies of the United States.

In her 1869 report to Congress, she noted that the Missing Soldier task force had managed to identify and locate 22,000 missing Civil War soldiers. As a teacher, nurse and Civil War hero locating thousands of missing
soldiers, Clara’s dedication to service and her country was amazing, but her greatest work had yet to be completed.

Volunteering in the battlefields of Europe, Clara learned about the International Red Cross. In 1882, after rallying U.S. political support, she established the American Red Cross.

The first big disaster it helped with was the 1900 hurricane in Galveston, Texas — still one of the nation’s deadliest natural disasters.

Today, the American Red Cross responds to more than 60,000 disasters every year, providing food, shelter, relief supplies and other assistance. It collects more than 4.5 million blood donations each year, and delivers CPR and water-safety education to more than 4.6 million people. The Red Cross also provides more than 540,000 services to support the military and their families annually.

This remarkable legacy was all started by a girl so shy she did not have any friends as a child, and during the 1800s — when most women were not allowed to own property, have bank accounts or vote.

To be a voice in a time when many were voiceless. To overcome personal struggle. To approach solutions bravely. To dedicate yourself to service to your community. These are the reasons I would like to meet Clara Barton. I am a leader of my school student government, I sewed 1,000 masks and donated them to health heroes during COVID, and I am an executive leader with my Model United Nations Club, but I have so much further to go. Meeting Clara Barton could allow me to get some wise advice from someone who has accomplished so much. Also, I would love to one day visit D.C. and see the National Red Cross Building. It serves as a monument to the women who served in the American Civil War, and is the Red Cross National Headquarters.