Hooray for eighth-grader Gurnoor Multani!
Gurnoor Multani of Marshall Simonds Middle School in Burlington, MA, took first place in the
2025 MA History Day competition for her project on the Great Boston Molasses Flood of
1919. Gurnoor advanced to the national competition, held earlier this month at the University
of Maryland. She did not place in the Top Ten (which are the only rankings that are
displayed), but by advancing to the nationals, she was among the top 100 competitors in the
country (two students from each state advance). Her teacher, Barbara Sturtevant, said the
school was thrilled!
I so appreciated Gurnoor’s kind note thanking me for my help, which read in part: “Your book,
Dark Tide, was the best source out there for me…Thank you also for replying back to my
email with a lot more information that I didn’t know.” Quick aside here and an extra source of
pride: Burlington MA is my hometown, and I attended the same school as Gurnoor — except
it was Burlington High School then!
