The Eugenia Price/Joyce K. Blackburn Charitable Fund of the Communities of Coastal Georgia Foundation and Golden Isles Arts & Humanities presented the 17th Annual Young Poets Awards on Friday, May 1, 2020 via a video presentation that is able to be viewed on Golden Isles Arts & Humanities Facebook page.
The Young Poets Award was established to encourage and recognize the literary talents of 9-12th grade public and private students in Glynn County.
The 2020 winners are: Ninth grade: Kendall Lee for her poem My Dear Friend, Hope; Tenth grade: Lisbel Ayala for her poem, The Future’s Future; Eleventh grade: Makenzie Brown for her poem Pluto; and Twelfth grade: Kelsie Collins for her poem Strength. All winners are students at Glynn Academy and are students of Dr. Susan McLemore. All received a certificate and a check for $250 from Golden Isles Arts & Humanities Executive Director, Heather Heath.
The theme of this year’s Young Poets Award was “Hope.” Students could submit up to three poems for consideration in any style they choose, but the work had to be reflective of the theme. The entries were reviewed and scored by four independent judges.
The Eugenia Price/Joyce K. Blackburn Charitable Fund of the Communities of Coastal Georgia Foundation’s purpose is to permanently carry on the artistic influence and philanthropic legacy of both authors, and to benefit Coastal Georgians. The work of Eugenia Price and Joyce Blackburn includes fifty-seven titles that have been published in eighteen languages and printed in excess of forty million copies worldwide.
Golden Isles Arts and Humanities Association coordinates the Young Poets’ Award each year. Heather Heath, GIAHA Executive Director, stated, “The circumstances that we find ourselves in now have made this year’s theme so much more relevant and though we could not do our normal First Friday presentation, we are happy that we are able to still present these four talented students to the community through our social media and through our local press. We are grateful to our judges for their thoughtful consideration as this is never an easy task. And we are proud to be able to assist in recognizing talented students and expanding their opportunities to participate in arts projects. We are grateful to the Price/Blackburn Charitable Fund of the Communities of Coastal Georgia Foundation for their support of this annual program.”
For further information on the Young Poets’ Award and arts-in-education programs sponsored by Golden Isles Arts & Humanities please call 912-262-6934 or visit www.goldenislesarts.org. For additional information on The Eugenia Price/Joyce K. Blackburn Charitable Fund of the Communities of Coastal Georgia Foundation, visit www.coastalgeorgiafoundation.org