Decorah students do well at writing contests

Decorah Community School students have once again garnered awards and recognition in their creative writing of stories, poems, and letters.

The Iowa Reading Council has announced that several Decorah students were chosen as winners in the 2010 competition. Second grader Kalea Oftedahl won both the regional contest and the state contest for her poem, "The Night Before Second Grade." 5th grader Helen Johnson also won the regional and state contests with her poem, "Glory." These two students have been invited to Des Moines on April 9th to attend the Young Author's Celebration in connection with the Iowa Reading Convention.

7th grader Adam Knight placed second at the state level and won the poetry contest regionally for his poem, "Quiet Woods." 6th grader Naomi Davidson placed third at state and first in the NE Iowa region for her poem, "One Million Stars."

5th grader Robert Berger won the creative writing contest for his grade at the regional level with his short story, "Cat Day," and 1st grader Cassie Wyatt won her story "Friends". 3rd grader Kamryn Langreck was a poetry contest winner for NE Iowa for her poem, "Autumn."

All of these Decorah students are being invited to attend the Spring Banquet of the Northeast Iowa Reading Council in Elkader on April 29th.

A sixth grade student, Sofiya Andrusishin, was a semi-finalist in a national writing contest called "Letters About Literature." She wrote a letter to author Gabrielle Zevin, describing how Zevin's book, "Elsewhere," helped her through a difficult time. Over 69,000 letters were written for this competition, and Sofiya's letter reached the third level of judging. Sofiya received special recognition for her achievement.

Kalea Oftedahl

Helen Johnson, Robert Berger, Adam Knight, Naomi Davidson, Sofiya Andrusishin