Lake Waccamaw, NC – Thomas Academy’s Celia Mitchell, Lorelei Hopkins and Wesley Smith were recently recognized as the winners of the Spring Creative Writing Contest sponsored by the Southport Woman’s Club.
“We are so grateful that the Southport Woman’s Club is willing to sponsor this competition each year to encourage our students’ writing efforts,” said Thomas Academy Principal Dr. Cathy Gantz. “Writing is an important skill and this contest provides an additional incentive to work on that skill.”
Each winner received a framed certificate, a $50 Barnes & Noble gift card, critiques of their work by the judges, and a copy of “Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within” by Natalie Goldberg. Southport Woman’s Club members Ronni Rose, Janet Banks and Jere Abernathy presented the awards. Club members Ann Rankowitz and Maddie Blomgren also served as judges for the contest.
“Writing is so important,” said Abernathy. “I really enjoy reading the stories and we definitely want to continue to encourage the students to write.”
Literacy is a key focus for the Southport Woman’s Club.
“The club formed in 1909 and started the first library in Southport,” said Rose. “We have remained focused on literacy and supporting charities at the local level. While we have a long history of supporting projects at Lake Waccamaw, this contest is a great way to move that support toward a core of literacy.”
The contest was open to all students at Thomas Academy. Entries were limited to five pages on any topic. The three winning stories demonstrated that variation as Smith’s was about vampires, Mitchell’s focused on a middle school experience, and Hopkins wrote a story about a young ghost. The students also entered the contest for different reasons.
“I am moving to Germany in a few months and I wanted to enter the contest again before the move,” said Smith.
For Mitchell, entering the competition was natural as she writes for fun.
“I revised something I had already written to submit for the contest,” she said.
Hopkins said, “My mom likes to write and I wanted to give it a try.”
“I really enjoyed reading all the entries,” said Rose. “Hearing from the students about why they entered will help us to get more entries for next year’s competition.”
About Thomas Academy
Thomas Academy is a North Carolina Public Charter School that educates middle and high school students. Located on the campus of Boys and Girls Homes of North Carolina in Lake Waccamaw, the academy provides a tailored academic experience to students who are oftentimes in need of a more specialized, integrated curriculum. Thomas Academy was founded on personalization in education, unique offerings and educating through purposeful design. Enrollment is open to any student in grades six through 12.
