Teddy Roosevelt: An Amazing Man - WINNER

by Anna (10)
(Raleigh, NC)

Theodore Roosevelt was our twenty-sixth president. When we hear the name Theodore Roosevelt you might think of a teddy bear, and someone else might think of the White House. These are three things that I noticed particularly about him: he was a nature lover, and he loved science, and he was incredibly determined.

Theodore Roosevelt, often called “Teddy” by his friends, was an enthusiastic nature lover. He loved to study animals, especially birds. Once his father brought him to a taxidermist and there Teddy learned how to stuff and mount animals. From then on, whenever he was feeling sad, he would go away and hunt, and then he would mount the animals he caught.

On a rainy day, Teddy would have nothing to do, so he would go out and catch an animal and use it for a science experiment. Soon people would have to look for frogs in their chairs or snakes in the water jug before they sat down or drank. He started buying field mice from anyone who could catch them and when the family went away for vacation, all except for his older sister Bamie, he left them at home. Bamie was left with hundreds of field mice skittering over the house. Once Teddy brought a dead field mouse in and put it in the icebox. He objected angrily when Cook threw it away, because science was important to Teddy.

Theodore was extremely determined. One time he walked twenty miles in one stretch. Another time he climbed a 6,000 foot mountain in one day. Once he was hunting buffalo and he was so intent on the buffalo that he did not see a bed of cactus and he crawled right into it. In spite of the cactus spikes in his hands, he kept crawling until he was 300 feet from the buffalo. Even with the spikes in his hand still, he picked up his gun and tried to shoot the buffalo. He wounded the buffalo but not bad enough that it died. It galloped towards him and Roosevelt had to spring for his horse, but the very next day he went out to hunt buffalo again. Roosevelt would never give up.

Theodore Roosevelt loved science and nature, but out of all his qualities, I admire the most how determined he was. He was so determined that anything he tried was easy for him. Theodore Roosevelt was an amazing man.

1. Nature lover
2. Scientific
3. Determined