Congratulations to West Virginia Sixth-Grader Emma Goodrich for Her Outstanding Boston Molasses Flood Project!
Say hello to – and hooray for – Emma Goodrich, a sixth-grader at Central Preston Middle School in Kingwood, West Virginia, who had a very interesting and exciting winter competing in the West Virginia State Social Studies Fair with her project on The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919!
Emma took home FIRST PLACE at the school level for her project entitled “Stress Fracture!” which entitled her to move on to the Preston County competition. She came within a whisker of winning at the County level too – finishing second, just ONE POINT behind the winner. Of course, she was a little disappointed about not winning, but very happy about her strong showing! I was thrilled to play a small part in Emma’s project by agreeing to an interview – her questions were smart, thorough, and well-researched. On top of that, she read my book, Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 in its entirety, has a great curiosity for learning, and is an aspiring writer — a very impressive student!
In fact, she is on a roll writing fiction – she won first place at the Preston County Young Writers Contest, and, as a result, attended the Young Writer’s Workshop in Charleston, West
Virginia in May 2025 (she’s shown below with another student winner). Emma’s winning story was about a knight on his journey to slay a dragon. What an eventful spring for Emma (and
her proud mom, Megan Goodrich).
Through the years, I’ve worked with numerous students from across the country on “molasses projects” (and have done so this winter with students from Maryland, Nebraska, and Massachusetts, as well as Emma), and it’s always so gratifying to see how much pride the kids take in their work. My thanks to Emma’s mom, Megan Goodrich, for coordinating my communications with Emma, providing the great photos, and for giving her gracious permission to share Emma’s good news.
