http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-essays/1899933-my-generic-reply-to-almost-every-essay-topic-review-request.html#latest
Your essay should be about you, not your trip. You’ll have to work to not have this lumped in with the thousands of essays the readers will get about highly personally meaningful trips. You may be able to pull it off in this case but you’ll have to not start by dwelling on the trip - introduce it after you’ve already shown some personal growth example.
The elements that would potentially make this a worthwhile subject in this case would be the repeated trips, allowing you to show self-awareness and personal growth in the story.
In the essay, I don’t care about the awards - those are covered elsewhere in the common app. I care about who you are and who you can become. Use the essay to show your ability to grow, not your ability to take a trip.