And the Poetry Winners Are...

The Young Poets 2009 Celebration was recently held at the Miller Center for the Arts (on the Reading Area Community College campus). What a wonderful and exciting evening!

We did not have any winners from the submissions from our library. However there were a few students who live in nearby communities who were 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place winners in their grade level. Here is the list of those students... maybe you know one of these awesome young poets:

Grade 6 - Rachel Keirstead, Fleetwood Area Middle School (2nd place)
Grade 7 - Elli Finn, Boone Area Library (tied 3rd place)
Grade 8 - Shannon Flannery, Exeter Township Jr. H.S. (2nd place)
Grade 9 - Emily Schucker, Daniel Boone H.S. (1st place)
Grade 10 - Rachel Bauman, Daniel Boone H.S. (1st place)
Grade 11 - Allison Watkins, Fleetwood Area H.S. (1st place)

There were 3 winners in grades 1-12 as well as honorable mention winners. Nearly all of the 1st, 2nd & 3rd place winners were present at the Celebration to read their poem aloud and receive their certificate, ribbon and monetary award. Families and friends, teachers and librarians were present to hear the readings, support the students and see them receive the honors and accolades they so richly deserved.

A booklet was created with each of the top three winning poems in all 12 grades published inside. Each winning student received a copy of this beautiful book as a commemoration of their fantastic work. Extra booklets were available for sale at the event and many families and friends took advantage of that.

Photos of the event will be available soon. Check this blog again at a future date for an added link to the site where you can see them.

There are a lot of wonderfully talented kids in Berks County. Maybe there is one in your home. Encourage them to express themselves and enter contests such as this one. This Young Poets contest is held annually, sponsored by the Reading Public Library and supported by the Berks Bards literary group.