The judges at this year’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast went through 2,600 essays to find three winners. That’s 300 more than they had to go through last year.

Winners will be announced at the annual event on Wednesday, Jan. 9 at the Bartow Civic Center. First, second and third place awards will be awarded to students in kindergarten through fifth grade, middle school and high school. The essays are on “Building the Dream, Living the Dream.”