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.

Young Poets 2009 Winners Announced

The winners of the annual Berks County poetry contest for students in grades 1 through 12 have finally been announced. By now, all the teachers and librarians who had students submit an entry have had a chance to notify participants of the results of the contest.

First, second, and third place prize winners in each grade will receive their awards at the Poetry Celebration being held at the end of this month. (See info at end of article for details) A beautiful Certificate of Participation is being given by teachers and librarians to those who did not place 1st, 2nd, or 3rd.

Everyone is invited to attend the Poetry Celebration to hear some of the prize winning poems and see the award presentations being made. The poems these students have written are always awesome and amazing. I always enjoy this program not just as a celebration of poetry but also as a celebration of the wonderful creativity and expressiveness of our students.

Each year all the award winning poems are published in a booklet and made available for purchase at the Celebration for the small fee of $2. I highly recommend bringing your family to this great event during National Poetry Month and picking up the book of poems as a souvenir.

This year the Poetry Celebration will be at the Miller Center for the Arts at Reading Area Community College at 7 p.m. on April 29, 2009.

A link to the list of winners will be posted at a later date.