Budding poets from local schools recognized

BY LINDA DeNICOLA
Staff Writer

Verbs and nouns and children sounds, that is what constitutes a poetry contest for elementary school children.

The Monmouth County Reading Council (MCRC) recently announced the winners of its 2007 Poetry Contest. They are from schools in Tinton Falls, Fair Haven, Red Bank and Cliffwood in Aberdeen.

Kayla Mitchell, a first-grade student in Anita Izbicki's class at the Mahala F. Atchison School in Tinton Falls, won for her poem, "Terry and the Caterpillars."

Ania D. Wu, a second- grade student in Kathleen Vergaretti's class at the Cliffwood Elementary School in Aberdeen won for reading "Oh Chrysanthemum."

Brianna Cantor, a third-grade student in Carol Cuttler's class, also at Atchison School, read her poem, "Pippi Longstocking."

Jessie Boak, a fourth-fifth-grade student in Patrice Horan's class at the Knollwood School in Fair Haven, read "Outside Sunset."

Maris Kraus, a sixth-grade student in Bonnie Crotty's class also at Knollwood School, read her poem "Running."

Molly McNamara, a seventh-eighth- grade student in Katherine Stanley's class at St. James School in Red Bank, read "That Was Then, This Is Now."

The Poetry Awards ceremony took place on the stage of the children's book section at Barnes & Noble in Holmdel. Each winner was presented with a certificate, first-place blue ribbon, and a gift certificate to the bookstore by the Monmouth County Reading Council.

In addition, the president-elect of the New Jersey Reading Association, Dr. Deborah Woo, presented each winner with a book.

Also on hand to honor the winners was poet Allan De Fina. He presented each winner with a signed copy of his poetry book "When a City Leans Against the Sky."

"We were thrilled to have so many wonderful entries to the poetry contest this year. The board had a very difficult time choosing just one winner in each category," said Michele Mackay, president of the MCRC.

The winning poets each read their creation on the stage to the audience and participated in an author signing following the event.

"The poetry awards ceremony is one of the highlights of our year. It is great to see how exciting this event is to our winners, their families and their nominating teachers," explained Mackay.

The poetry contest is held each year. Any teacher who is a current member of MCRC is eligible to submit three entries from each class they teach.

The MCRC is a local council of the New Jersey Reading Association and the International Reading Association. It is a professional organization open to teachers who live or work in Monmouth County.

The MCRC also runs a program called Have a Heart, Give a Book during the months of January and February. With this program, schools or other community organizations collect new books for children. The donations are then wrapped and delivered on Valentine's Day to children who may not have access to books at home.

This year hundreds of books were collected by MCRC and delivered to organizations such as Linkages, The Parker Family Health Clinic, Youth Achievement Branch of the YMCA, and CentraState Medical Center.

To learn more about the MCRC e-mail to: michelemackay@verizon.net.