Schools Will Be Named First Official River Read Schools
CONWAY, SC – During the 3:00 hour of River Read on April 12, representatives from Kingston Elementary School in Conway and North Myrtle Beach High School will be named the first Official River Read Schools. These two schools earned this new designation as a result of outstanding participation in the writing contests leading up to River Read 2014.
“We wanted to give teachers and schools in Horry County an incentive to participate in our contests,” said River Read Founder Barbara Blain-Olds. “The result was the creation of an award for the schools that submitted the most entries to our Poetry Slam competition and our new essay contest. These would be the first Official River Read Schools in Horry County.”
Conway’s Kingston Elementary School will be honored for its participation in the essay contest. Principal Dr. Dawn N. Brooks encouraged all of her second- through fifth-grade teachers to make participation in River Read’s essay contest a writing assignment for their classes. As a result, the school submitted 173 essays that expressed students’ responses to the prompt “Reading makes me…” First-, second- and third-place winners among all submitted entries in each grade will receive awards at River Read, and the first-place winners will read their essays.
English faculty at North Myrtle Beach High School also encouraged their students to participate in River Read’s Poetry Slam, which resulted in seven entries from the school. Of the eight finalists, who are competing for “likes” of their poetry performances on YouTube, five are from North Myrtle Beach High School. The three students whose videos receive the most likes will perform at River Read to compete for first-place honors. Voting for the Poetry Slam is open until 11:59 p.m. on April 9. To view the students’ performances and cast a vote, visit http://riverread.org/poetryslam.
River Read is a nonprofit community festival, which would not be possible without the dedicated individuals, volunteers, community organizations and businesses who have worked together to bring this event to life. Special thanks to personal contributors to River Read, as well as our business sponsors: Waccamaw Community Foundation, the City of Conway, Coast RTA, WBTW News 13, Sonic America’s Drive In Star 92.1 FM, Social Suite Creative, Elite Talent and Event Management Services, Mother Goose Children's & Maternity Resale Store, The Jackson Companies, Franklin Sanders Allstate, Wells Fargo, Conway National Bank, Woodmen Of The World, Books-a-Million and Design the Sign.
For more information about River Read, visit our Website or contact Barbara Blain-Olds at info@riverread.org.
River Read is a nonprofit community festival. Its goal is to celebrate reading in Horry County, and the City of Conway as “The City that Reads.” River Read was created in response to a Municipal Association of South Carolina challenge to identify a unique feature of one’s city, and utilize it to instill pride and a sense of community in its residents. Councilwoman Barbara Blain-Olds heard this call and drew upon her staunch support of promoting literacy in her community, a personal love of reading and the universal appeal it has for people to create this unique festival that brings all of our stories together in celebration of reading.
