LIMA, OH (WLIO) - 7th and 8th graders from 14 schools in our region met Saturday, Jan. 21 to show off their creative writing skills at a competitive level.
Ohio State Lima hosted the Northwest Ohio Region Power of the Pen competition Saturday afternoon. Each school competing could send two teams of up to six 7th grades and six 8th graders. They were given three surprise prompts to write about with a 40 minute time limit for each. Their work was scored by judges on site and at the end of the day an award ceremony was held and the top performers were given plaques and medals to display in the trophy cases at their schools.
Organizers of Power of the Pen hope competitors realize that the skills they develop through creative writing can help them in a wide variety of careers.
"Many times we think of writing competitions that these students are only going into writing careers, correct? But it's really quite different. We have alumni who are clergy, who are math communicators, we have alumni who write for, actually, Saturday Night Live," said Polly Walters, the Northwest Regional Director of Power of the Pen.
The top 50% of competitors in each grade level will move on to the regional round of the competition at Lourdes College. The winners can be found below.
1st place seventh grade District Champion: Fort Loramie Junior High writer Ella Rethman
1st place eighth grade District Champion: West Side Montessori School writer Skylar Sachs
7th Grade team winners:
- 3rd place: Upper Scioto Valley Schools
- 2nd place: New Bremen Junior High School
- 1st place: Houston Junior High School
8th Grade team winners:
- 3rd place New Bremen Junior High School
- 2nd place Spencerville Middle School
- 1st place West Side Montessori School
