CHANGE IN VENUE FOR AWARDS
ELIZABETHTOWN – UPDATE with TIME AND DATE CHANGE: The Bladen Journal has been holding a youth writing contest for all Bladen County eighth grade students.
It’s their last year before heading off to high school, and The Journal would like to find our young writers in Bladen County and perhaps one day get a few that would be interested in a youth internship with editor and general manager, Mark DeLap.
The contest was open to any student currently in the eighth grade and is enrolled in either one of the Bladen County schools or is homeschooled in Bladen County.
The contest deadline is now passed and our journalists are busy judging the sumissions. Stories are being judged by journalists from southeastern North Carolina and the top 12 best stories will be chosen based on content, imagination, journalistic integrity, AP style, creativity, spelling, grammar, picture quality, and relativity.
The top 12 stories were be published in the Bladen Journal with their submitted pictures in the Nov. 12 edition and all stories are also online. From those top 12, the people of the county can vote for their favorite until Nov. 29. Two awards will be given for the contest. Overall best story as judged by our local professional journalists shall be called the “Bladen Journal Walter Cronkite” award and the second will be a “People’s Choice Pulitzer” award. The winners will receive a plaque and a book and will be announced at a special assembly Dec. 5 at 1:30 p.m. at the Clarkton School of Discovery. The awards ceremony will only be open to all CSD 8th-grade students, and the families of the 12 authors who were published in the Bladen Journal.
The Cronkite award will also come with a $50 gift card, The Pulitzer will come with a $30 gift card, second and third place winners will each receive a certificate and a $20 gift card.
The overall winner will also be able to treat their homeroom to an in-class submarine sandwich Party hosted by the Bladen Journal. At that time, local journalists, community leaders and a special celebrity guest will come and visit and speak to the class. This date will be determined based on the local educator’s schedule.
The contest officially opened Sept. 17 and received submissions until Nov. 1 at midnight when the contest officially closed. The winning stories will be read out loud by the authors and the winners will be announced at the assembly. All those who submitted entries are encouraged to participate.
The link to vote for your favorites is at:https://bit.ly/bladenjournalyouthwritingcontest
Additionally, attached is a QR code that should take you to the same google form.
We ask that if you’ve already voted at the hotmail address, you vote again at the google site as our hotmail site went down.
If you have any questions or need more information, please send an email to Bladen Journal editor and general manager Mark DeLap at mdelap@bladenjournal.com