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Story of perseverance makes Rugby student national champion

By Angie Reinoehl - Staff Writer | Aug 17, 2024

Harper Seykora, 11, holds her trophy awarded by the Fraternal Order of Eagles for her first-place ranking at the national God, Flag & Country competition.

Harper Seykora, sixth grader at Ely Elementary, earned the title of national champion earlier this month at the God, Flag & Country oratorical competition. She pulled on the heartstrings of judges and audience members alike with her touching speech about her mother’s terminal stage four melanoma diagnosis and her journey to beating cancer.

The annual competition is held by the Fraternal Order of Eagles (FOE) which starts at the local level and moves onto the state level, culminating with the final round at the FOE’s national convention. The goal of the competition is to inspire patriotic ideals in America’s youth and is designed to work in conjunction with the basic teachings of the FOE.

A flier sparked Harper’s interest last school year, which inspired her to write about the characters of her American story.

Harper’s mother, Ashley Seykora, was given her terminal diagnosis while she was pregnant with Harper’s little brother, Beckett. With one year left to live, she started chemotherapy following Beckett’s birth and was faced with the reality of her children growing up without her. After the chemotherapy treatments failed she turned to her last chance – clinical trials.

After searching throughout the United States she finally found a trial in Housten, Texas, that would take her on. Even though the treatments were hard on her body, she was eventually able to ring the bell and has been cancer free for nine years.

Harper highlighted her mother’s perseverance in her speech at the convention in New Orleans which struck a note with the audience.

The journey to the final showdown wasn’t without road bumps. Just four days prior to the state-level competition in Valley City, Harper took an ambulance ride to the hospital to undergo an emergency appendectomy. Still sore from surgery, Harper made the decision to still go onstage to perform her speech in person. Even though she couldn’t stand straight up due to pain, she still earned gold and brought home a ticket to nationals.

“I was just so proud of her. We’ve always nicknamed Harper ‘Peanut’ because she was born four weeks early. She’s pretty healthy but she’s always been kind of small. To just have this little person, your child, your kid, go do something and be so confident – it’s hard to put words to it,” Ashley Seykora said.

Harper said the hardest part of the competition has been overcoming her anxiety but by working hard she was able to feel confident stepping outside of her comfort zone.

“I think that although she’s anxious, she’s learned that if you’re just prepared that anxiety can go away. You just have to believe in yourself that you can and just know that your best is good enough. I’ve seen her confidence grow a lot,” Ashley Seykora said.

While in Louisiana, Harper made a few good friends at the FOE’s Mardi Gras-themed convention. She said her favorite part of the experience was being able to share her story.

Along with her trophy, Harper was also awarded $1,000 for her hard work. She plans to put most of it into savings. Her father, Dan Seykora, a teacher at Rugby High School, organizes study abroad trips for RHS students which Harper hopes to join in the future.

After making new friends and gaining confidence from her success, Harper plans to compete in the next God, Flag & Country competition.

She encourages anyone who is thinking about the competition to join, “Just go for it, even if you’re scared. If you have an idea you can start with that and work your way up.”

Harper’s speech is as follows:

“Today I’m going to talk about our beautiful country, The United States of America. I love our country because well, I live here! What I mean is it’s the people who make America great. When people think about America they might think about New York City, Washington D.C., or maybe even New Orleans! But that isn’t the story of America – it’s just the setting.

Everyone knows that characters are what make a story great and America is like a story. Most people’s stories are full of characters. Not like the ones we learn about in social studies. I mean regular people with daring, rebellious dreams; people who show up for you when you need them.

Here’s a bit about the characters in my American story: my mom is one of the heroes in my life. When I was about two years old, she was diagnosed with stage four melanoma. But the worst part was that she was pregnant with my baby brother. Her doctors told her that she had one year left to live. Soon after my brother was born she started chemotherapy. However, three months into those treatments she found out the medicine wasn’t working. So she searched for medical trials throughout the United States and found one in Houston, Texas. My family and I had to move from North Dakota to Texas for her to enroll in the trial. Even though my mom got even more sick and was eventually kicked off her trial, it worked! She has been cancer free for over nine years.

That’s one chapter of my family’s story, but there are other heroes and characters that came before, including my great grandpa, MNathias Deisz, who was definitely both. My great grandpa, a first generation American, was born in 1923 and was basically still a kid during the Great Depression. When he was just 13 years old his parents had no choice but to send him away to work for a rancher in Montana. Every month he would send his paycheck home to his parents in Emmons County, North Dakota. When he got a bit older, he got a job working for the Civilian Conservation Corps. Because of his efforts, his family did not lose their farm. He went on to raise five children there, including my grandmother.

We often hear big stories about people like Benjamin Franklin or George Washington, but really it’s the everyday people that make America’s story unique. Because of those people, I am who I am, and I’m proud to be an American.