Young Writers Competition 2015

Our New Generations initiative is there to encourage young people from the local area to develop experiences  to fulfil and enlighten them. During the course of the year on a number of occasions we assist young people in helping them achieve their individual ambitions, and in addition we run a number of competitions to encourage creativity in our young people. These include a Young Speakers Competition, and a Young Musicians competition in conjunction with another Rotary Club in the area. This year, for the first time we developed the concept of a Young Writers competition to celebrate those who are creative with the written word. This was championed by Rotarian Kelvin Williams who contacted schools and set out how the competition was to be developed

Sadly Kelvin moved out of the area having put the event in motion and has subsequently joined a Rotary Club close to his new home in Kent. However, he visited our Club again for the finale of the competition.

The brief to the young people involved was to write a 500 word short story on a topic of their own choosing. The resulting entries were then judged on three criteria:

• Imagination relative to the subject
• Ability to engage interest
• Ability to tell a good story

Specifically, the English Department at Bromfords School got behind the competition, and encouraged their students to take part. Entries were received over the end of the year, and a panel of judges placed the stories in order of merit. It has to be said that all of the judges found this an extremely hard job, as the quality of the writing was so high and it was difficult to differentiate between them.

A presentation evening was held in late January, attended by most of the entrants and their families, during which the stories written by the finalists were read out by two Rotary Club members, joined by Mrs Evans from Bromfords School English Department.

During the course of the evening Lois Chapman, one of the beneficiaries of support from the Rotary Club during last year, provided further entertainment with her singing of songs mainly from stage musicals. Lois