Friday, March 29, 2024

Dianela Hancock wins San Pedro Town Library Youth Writing Contest

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With the dream of winning a brand new Toshiba laptop, students from Standards Four through Six got busy scribbling and typing away for the first ever San Pedro Library Youth Writing Contest. The topic “What Love Means to Me” was just in time for Valentine’s Day, and it seemed that students had a lot to write about love. In all, 55 entries were recorded, with essays coming in from The Island Academy (TIA), San Pedro Roman Catholic School (SPRCS), Ambergris Caye Elementary School (ACES), Holy Cross Anglican School and even Caye Caulker Roman Catholic School (CCRCS).
Themes ranged from family, school, community, country, Mother Earth, and even God and the Virtue of Love.With rules such as: sticking to a 150-200 word limit, ensuring the standard writing protocols were followed (beginning, middle, end), and more, judges had to sift through many wonderful writings and personal essays to choose their top three
writers.

Library Youth Writing Contest-1

Winning the top prize was Dianela Hancock, with her essay about Mother Earth. Second place was taken by LitzyBaeza, while third place was won by Lisbeth Calix. All three winners were from SPRCS, and taught by teacher Roberto Gongora.
Dianela’s essay was about her love for Mother Earth, which she chose to write about after her teacher handed out the flyer announcing the contest during evening classes. Dianela explained that Mr.Gongora encouraged his class to try out for the contest, and to take a chance at expressing their feelings through this creative medium. “I chose to write about Mother Earth…it’s so beautiful…I wrote it and he [Mr.Gongora] checked it for me.” LitzyBaeza, second place winner, chose to write about her love for her parents. “I love my parents, and they are pretty important in life, so I wrote about them.”
Dianela is excited about winning the Toshiba laptop; it is her first ever laptop. According to the smiling winner, the laptop will come in very handy when doing research online. She may even get a Facebook profile! Litzy won $200, which she has saved for a Standard Five trip. The money will come in very handy as she wants her mother to accompany her on the trip.
Ten other students were given consolation prizes. They are Rowel Rivero (SPRCS), EmeldoCatzim (CCRCS), Emil Nuñez (TIA), Sergio (TIA), Michael O’Farrell (TIA), Alexandria DeShield (SPRCS), Alice Corrigan (TIA), IlynnCamal (TIA), Sophie Coc (CCRCS) and Zulema Ayala (TIA).
Below is the winning essay:

What Love Means to Me, by Dianela Hancock

Have you ever wondered about how beautiful mother earth is? The beaches with the sandy shores that will tickle your feet and invite you to visit its shores together with its colorful and sparkling oceans. The beach is one of the many reasons why thousands of tourists visit us every year. I love how the breeze refreshes me, makes the trees dance and how pure, contamination free it is.
At night I watch the sky with awe. When I see how beautifully the bright, twinkling stars decorate the sky like Christmas lights decorate a home. I love how the moon lightens us at night to offer us its moon light. It is like a bath of light to our earth, especially in the days of the full moon.
The sun is the most important and spectacular star that mother earth has been blessed with, for no living creature would be able to exist without its spectacular source of energy. That is the mother earth’s gift to us. Therefore caring and appreciating mother earth is what love means to me.

 

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