Young Writers Regional Award Ceremony

On April 21st, PARC recognized 115 regional winners in grades Kindergarten through 12th as part of our annual Young Writers contest.  School divisions across the PARC region submitted entries ranging in fiction to essays.  A huge thank you goes out to our district coordinators for their hard work at the district level and to all regional judges who helped the process go so smoothly. We also would like to thank Lynchburg College for hosting us for our judging day.

GUEST SPEAKER: GARY DOP

The program started out with guest speaker and poet Gary Dop, from Randolph College, who gave our young writers a wonderful, encouraging speech to keep writing! His sense of humor kept the entire audience on the edge of their seats, and everyone enjoyed hearing a few of his own pieces of work.

THE CONTEST PROCESS

In October, we kicked off this year's process. Students across the region worked on one of three projects-poetry, fictional story, or essay. Their work was judged three times-at the school level, the district level, and at the regional level to determine our first, second, and third place winners. Each piece is evaluated at the regional level by two judges for the organization, content, language, and grammar, so you can see it's a grueling process. 

RECOGNIZING OUR WINNERS

Each of our winners was recognized with a special certificate and medal in bronze, silver, and gold and invited on stage for photographs. It is certainly a proud moment, and these students' hard work was worthy of a special moment in the spotlight for sure! Each has amazing talents as young writers!  We hope they will continue to write and sharpen their skills.

THANK YOUS

A big thank you goes out to Lynchburg City Schools for allowing PARC to use the auditorium at Heritage High School. It is a beautiful venue and was perfect for our celebration.

We also want to thank all of our districts for offering the contest to their students and to the teachers whose hard work, effort in preparing the students, and time made the opportunity happen.

We also want to recognize those who traveled near and far, some very far, to be with us early on a Saturday morning.  PARC has a wide range, and we appreciate the love you have for your students and literacy!