The Concerned Black Parents and Citizens of South Brunswick sponsored the events, which celebrated the work of students during Black History Month.
By: Nick D’Amore
Area students were rewarded for their hard work during Black History Month with an awards ceremony Saturday at the Senior Center.
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Related story: Contest winners (March 1, 2001) |
Students throughout South Brunswick participated in Black History Month by writing biographical poems about George Washington Carver and depicting the themes of the anonymous poem "One" by creating posters.
The art submissions were displayed in the Senior Center and the poems were read aloud by their authors during the ceremony.
The Concerned Black Parents and Citizens of South Brunswick sponsored the night’s events, along with the Department of Recreation and Community Affairs, and the South Brunswick Arts Commission.
The ceremony began with Mayor Debra Johnson reading a brief biography of George Washington Carver titled "The Plant Doctor."
"He found happiness and honor in giving help to the world," she read.
Students were then rewarded for their poetry submissions, which offered different ways of relating the biography of Carver.
Christian Ginez, a seventh-grader, took first place among the 120 submissions.
"The actual writing wasn’t hard," he said, "but the fine-tuning was."
He said that he read an additional biography on Carver to help him write the poem.
"This is the first time we’ve had a poetry contest," said Linda Simon, president of the Concerned Black Parents and Citizens of South Brunswick.
In the past, the contest was an essay contest, she said, but this year’s alternative "turned out pretty good."
Rebecca Dahl from the Indian Fields School took first place among the fourth-graders in the poster contest. She said she focused her poster on the line, "One tree can start a forest," from the poem, "One."
Jarrett and Kevin Yu, Upper Elementary School students who won first place in the fifth-and sixth grade contests, both chose to incorporate many of the themes of the poem in their poster.
"I tried all of it, but some parts were too hard to demonstrate," said Kevin.
"My mom helped me think a little," said Jarrett.
Kevin said he chose to include various themes because it was "more creative and special."
The night concluded with a performance of traditional African dances and current African-American dance forms. The presentation demonstrated the influence of the traditional dances on today’s styles.
Ms. Simon said she was pleased with the turn out at the awards ceremony.
She added that teachers needed to be thanked for making the Black History contests a project for their classes.
"It allowed the kids to do something different," she said.