Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

2 Blevins Students Named Overall Winners

At SAU Writing Contest Two students at Blevins Public Schools were named the overall winners in their age division at the Southern Arkansas University Writing Festival in Magnolia.

Heather Blount, a fourth grader, won the division for grades four through six in the short story category and Sandi Pennington, who is in the ninth grade, won the poetry category for grades seven through nine.

Each received a trophy and a cash prize. These will be published in a literary magazine this spring.

Heather is the daughter of Bennie and Delight Blount of Blevins. Sandi is the daughter of Tim and Georgia Estes of Prescott.

Thirty-eight other awards were won by the students at Blevins at the annual writing contest. The categories for the contest were poetry, short stories and essays.

Fourteen students received first place awards in the contest.

The students were Sydney Steely, first grade; Kelsey Ratcliff, Jenna Jenkins, Matthew Hardy, Courtney Hinton, Lisa Shaw and Sara Mathias, third graders; Heather Blount and Natalie Guarisco, fourth graders; Bianca Kinnu and Shauna Rosenbaum, seventh graders; Sandi Pennington and James Zumwalt, ninth graders; and Ronda Riggins, a 10th grader.

Second place awards went to 13 students: Courtney Hinton, third grade; Natalie Guarisco, Amanda Frederick, LeRon Morris, Holli Harris and Rachel Wood, fourth grade; Zach Taylor, sixth grade; Bianca Kinnu, seventh grade; Jennifer Lawler, Crystal Bobo and Melissa Blount, ninth graders; Jennifer Rodgers, tenth grade; and Crystal Hawthorne, a 11th grader.

Blevins students were awarded 11 third place awards. The students are Shauvanta Barker, third grade; Jessica Follis and Edward Hilton, seventh graders, Vickie Steward, eighth grade; Tonya Riley, Jennifer Lawler and Crystal Bobo, ninth graders; Ronda Riggins and James Teague, 10th graders; and Monica Morgan, 11th grade.