Contest creates a ‘recipe for success’ with young writers
Two New Jersey students cooked up award-winning short stories in a national writing contest put on by the Young Voices Foundation.
The contest, titled “Young Voices of America Cook Up a Story,” required student writers to create a short story based on a healthy family recipe and incorporate it into the plot through the story’s main character.
The Young Voices Foundation, created in 2007 to mentor student writers in Round Hill, Va., holds four national contests with monetary awards for young people each year.
Its founder, Bobbi Carducci, headed this year’s contest. Students from kindergarten to 12th grade were permitted to enter, and competed against students in the same age group.
Carducci, a writer herself, hopes the opportunity inspires young children and teens to write.
“The organization’s mission is to mentor young writers and to foster a lifelong love of reading and writing in young people,” she said.
Young Voices Foundation holds adult and teen writers groups in the Round Hill area in addition to the poetry and short story competitions.
Carducci’s long-term goal is to have writers groups for young people across the United States. She saw the national contests as a way to reach out to students.
“I wanted to bring the program to as many kids as we could possibly reach,” she said.
Several hundred student writers from 42 different states applied to the contest. Carducci hopes the contest inspires those students to be creative thinkers.
“I firmly believe that creative young people need a practice field of their own, just as young athletes do. Our long-term goal is to build a system of creative support for young people to support their emerging talent,” she said.
The contest was judged by members of the foundation on creativity, technical skills and adherence to the contest’s recipe theme.
Students were required to include a recipe of a healthy dish within the story and to include cooking instructions.
“We see ourselves as a teaching organization,” Carducci said, adding that one such lesson would be to teach young writers that writing is a skill, as well as a craft. “Professional writers have to pay attention to spelling, grammar, sentence structure.”
This year’s grand-prize winner, Erin McGarrity, 14, a ninth-grader at Merion Mercy Academy in Merion, Pa., entered the contest in June.
McGarrity, of Turnersville, enjoys writing children’s stories and poetry and saw the contest as a way to put her hobby to work.
Her story titled, “A Little Bit of Irish Magic,” was about a 10-year-old girl, who makes her grandmother’s Irish potato recipe that can cure people of their ailments.
McGarrity, who is Irish, said she got the idea from a family recipe.
She won a grand prize of $500 that she plans to save. She said when she found out she was the winner, she was surprised and honored.
“I didn’t know how many people would know about the contest. I was surprised because I didn’t think I would win,” McGarrity said.
First-place contest winner Jamie Bowne, 10, is a fifth-grader at J. Harold Vanzant Elementary School. She wrote a story titled, “Freedom’s Fight.”
The young Marlton resident has been writing since she was in kindergarten, and enjoys reading and writing about animals and fantasy.
This was the first writing contest that Bowne entered. She won $250 as a first-place winner.
“I haven’t entered a contest before, and I thought this would be a good one to start with. Winning was a surprise. I was really excited, surprised and proud,” she said.
Bowne, a horseback rider, wrote a story telling the tale of a girl who lived on a horse farm and her quest to own a horse.
She incorporated her grandmother’s fruit salad recipe into the story.
Her advice to other young writers is to keep practicing.
“Have fun writing and write about things you are interested in,” she said.
Currently students in kindergarten to 12th grade can enter the Young Voices of America Speak their Muse poetry contest until the end of October.
To read contest winners’ full stories or for more informaiton, visit www.youngvoicesfoundation.org.
