Pine Grove Elementary Students Honored at Young Author's Contest Ceremony

Three Pine Grove Elementary School students were among those honored at an awards ceremony held at Oregon Ridge Park in Hunt Valley earlier this week to celebrate young authors who won in a statewide writing contest.

Fourth-graders Aidan Strange and Julia Lowman, along with second-grader Maxwell Bagster-Collins, each won in the county-level competition for their grade.

Thirty students from around Baltimore County were winners in the county competition, and 10 of them went on to compete at the state level.

At the May 12 awards ceremony, students were recognized for their outstanding writing ability and had the opportunity to read their entries aloud to an audience.

The contest was sponsored by the Baltimore County Reading Council, an organization associated with Baltimore County government that seeks to promote literacy among youth.

The contest was open to students in grades 2-8, who could enter in one of two categories: short story or poetry.

"This contest is about promoting creativity through written expression," said Heather Hollenbeck, an assistant principal at Rodgers Forge Elementary School and the president of the Baltimore County Reading Council.

"It's a way for students to develop imagination and creativity," she said. "With so much emphasis on assessments, students' opportunities to create independently are limited."

The Baltimore County Reading Council is part of a national association of reading councils and has been operating for at least 50 years, according to Hollenbeck. The statewide Young Author's contest has been running for at least 10 years, she said.

Ten-year-old Aidan Strange won at the county level in the poetry category for a piece she wrote about the responsibilities of Mother Earth. 

"I try to enter this contest every year," Aidan said. "We got the call about me winning and I was so excited."

Julia Lowman, Aidan's classmate, won at the county level for her short story submission.

"It started as an assignment to write a story from the point of view of an apple, but it became more than that," Lowman said. "I chose to write from the point of view of the apple in Snow White."

Their teacher, Jenise Atabeck-Gabriel, couldn't have been more excited for the girls.

"It's pretty fantastic—I've had students go on to the county level of this contest before," said Atabeck-Gabriel. "These girls are excellent students and very excited about learning."

Seven-year-old Maxwell Bagster-Collins won for his short story about a boy struggling with math in school. 

"He wrote a story about a boy practicing his math speed drills, and the day he read it aloud and won at the school level was the day he passed his," said Max's teacher Nicole Gribbon.

"He's a role model," she said. "He really sets an example for the class."

According to Atabeck-Gabriel, a teacher at Pine Grove Elementary for 13 years, the school had never had three students win at the county level and go on to the state competition.