Meet the girls who will represent Gaston at the National History Day competition

A group of Gaston County students, with the St. Michaels Homeschool Co-op, are headed to Washington D.C. in June to compete in the National History Day Competition.

Their project, which recently won second place at the state level of the competition in Greensboro, tells the story of child labor in Gaston County’s mills and specifically, Gastonia’s Loray Mill.

Elena Gale, Emma Rose Laurell, Zelie Polnaszec and Sophia Siebert wanted to apply this year’s competition theme, “rights and responsibilities,” to the local history of Gastonia, according to Laurell.

They chose child labor because, “It was pretty clear the children were mistreated in the mills,” Siebert said.

After working with Alex Brooks, a curator at the Gaston County Museum to tour the Loray Mill and gather information from th