Old Creamery Theatre honors six Decorah and North Winn students

Six students from Decorah and North Winneshiek schools have been given awards in the Old Creamery Theatre's annual writing contest.

Each year the theatre's Young Audience Tour chooses student-written stories to include in its traveling school tour.  This year, area students wrote three of the seven award-winning stories set to music for the show, which was performed recently at Decorah High School. Afterwards, winning students were called to the stage to meet the actors, get their photos taken with the troupe, and receive award certificates and gift cards to Barnes and Noble.

Winning the grand prize and having her story "Players Gonna Play" performed onstage was Jensen Korsness, 6th grader from North Winneshiek.

First place winner was Decorah's fifth grader Amelia Wadsworth for "Sally Saves the Day."

Second place winners included Decorah fifth graders Kamryn Steines for "The Neighbors" and Oliver Brummel for "Why the Continents are Where They Are."

Third place winner included Decorah second grader Leah Garcia-Pratts for "Fork and Spoon."

Honored for special recognition was Decorah fifth grader Lily Sandhorst for "With My New Friends I Can."

Steines and Garcia-Pratts were further honored with their stories being featured onstage in this year's show "Sailing the Three C's."

The theme for this year's writing contest was using the problem-solving strategies of cooperation, compromise, and critical thinking to "get out of sticky situations without using your fists or harsh words."