SPANISH FORT, Ala.—Spanish Fort High School’s Clayton Edwards already sees the link between education and success.

Edwards recently took second place in the Daphne Optimist Club’s second annual essay contest in which high school students from across the area were asked to write about “How my Education is the Key to a Successful Future.”

“Winners received a savings bond, medallion and certificate,” said Joni Ojard, a teacher in SFHS’s family and consumer sciences department.

Students from Bayside Academy, Daphne, Fairhope and Spanish Fort high schools participated in the 2010-11 competition.

The essay contest is sponsored each year by Optimist International “to give young people the opportunity to write about their own opinions regarding the world in which they live.”

Nationwide, more than 3,100 autonomous optimist clubs boast more than 100,000 members who conduct an estimated 65,000 service projects annually while serving some six million youth.