MONTICELLO, NY — According to its website, the Every Person Influences Children (EPIC) organization “is a national not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping families, schools, and communities raise children to become responsible and capable adults.”

The program was founded by Robert Wilson, a man whose wife was killed by a 15-year-old foster child the couple had befriended. Wilson discovered that the child had been abused, neglected and placed in 11 different foster homes in his life. In response to that tragedy, Wilson started EPIC to involve the community in “helping children make responsible decisions… and succeed in life.”

An EPIC program coming up at the George Cooke Elementary School in Monticello, involving students from Kindergarten to fifth grade, is an essay contest related to Black History Month. The children will write essays about historical people and places that have made the world a better place. For the younger children, the essays will be more pictorial.

The winners will be announced on Thursday, February 25, at the school, in conjunction with a “family reading night,” during which essays will be read. Shannon Daniels, one of the educators coordinating the program, said involving the parents in the student’s education is an important part of EPIC’s philosophy.