Reading
Rainbow National Young Writers & Illustrators Contest Honors Las Vegas Student
Annual PBS
KIDS® Event Fosters Reading, Writing and Creativity
The
15th Annual
Reading Rainbow Young Writers & Illustrators Contest
has awarded Ian McCue, a third grader at Alexander Dawson School from Las Vegas
a national third place in grade three for his story.
The Contest encourages children to use their
imagination to author and illustrate their own “book.” McCue
is one of only
12 authors selected from more than 35,000 Contest entrants nationwide.
For his original story, McCue wrote and drew pictures for I
Lose My Teeth in the Weirdest Ways a tale of the unusual circumstances that
McCue encounters while losing his teeth.
Conducted by the
acclaimed PBS KIDS television children’s series
Reading Rainbow with funding from presenting sponsor
Country Inns & Suites By Carlson, Inc. and The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations,
the national Contest is produced by WNED-TV/Buffalo and Smarterville Productions
LLC. The Contest is
public television’s longest running and most successful outreach effort.
Vegas PBS was one
of 95 public television stations participating in this year’s Contest.
Contest
entries from Kindergarteners through third
graders are first judged at the local level, with
local winners advancing to the national competition. Two rounds of national
judging culminated in a final judging by a distinguished panel that included
representatives of children’s television programming, educators, a literacy
expert, a librarian and university professor.
“Just as
Reading Rainbow
generates excitement about reading, the Contest engages children in the process
of creating stories that are uniquely their own,” said Donald K. Boswell, WNED’s
President and CEO. “Every child who participates learns what it is like to be an
author.”
All local Contest
participants receive
a Certificate of Achievement signed by READING RAINBOW’s
host LeVar Burton. Vegas PBS also recognized 16 area winners.
This
year’s national Contest winners were given flat-panel
TVs with DVD players (Grand Prize); digital cameras (Second Place); and iPods
(Third Place). Each also received three READING RAINBOW library sets
(DVDs and books) for his or her home, school and library.
The illustrated
stories of national Contest winners and a sampling of local winners from
previous years are displayed on READING RAINBOW’s Web site (pbskids.org/readingrainbow).
In early August the newest winners – those from the 15th Annual Contest – will
be posted. The Web site also features fun, engaging activities and games for
kids and information about READING RAINBOW for parents and teachers.
For
additional information about Vegas PBS and its educational services, please
visit
www.VegasPBS.org. Follow Vegas PBS on
Facebook or
Twitter for the latest news and updates.
About
PBS KIDS and PBS KIDS GO!
PBS KIDS,
for preschoolers, and PBS KIDS GO!, for early elementary school kids, are
committed to providing the highest quality non-commercial content and learning
environment for children across the country. Providing age-appropriate, diverse
programming for kids, PBS KIDS and PBS KIDS GO! programs consistently earn more
prestigious awards than any other broadcast or cable network. Only PBS KIDS and
PBS KIDS GO! have earned the unanimous endorsement of parents, children,
industry leaders and teachers. With additional PBS resources to complement its
programming, including PBS KIDS online (pbskids.org),
PBS KIDS GO! online (pbskidsgo.org),
PBS Parents (pbsparents.org),
PBS Teachers (pbs.org/teachers),
PBS Ready To Learn services and literacy events across the country, PBS is
providing the tools necessary for positive child development. PBS is a nonprofit
media enterprise owned and operated by the nation’s 355 public television
stations, serving nearly 73 million people each week and reaching 99% of
American homes.
For more than 40 years, Vegas PBS has provided
Southern Nevada with quality, commercial free programming, media and media
delivery technology. Vegas PBS provides broadcast TV and cable over seven
channels with an additional six educational channels provided directly to the
classroom. Vegas PBS local productions include, Nevada Week in Review, Your
Health Matters, Outdoor Nevada, Wonders of the West, Inside Education, Homework
Hotline, CCSD Varsity Quiz, election debates and coverage and daily live
classes for CCSD Virtual High School. In 2009, Vegas PBS completes construction
on its Educational Technology Campus, a model for sustainability and green
building practices representing the first television station in North America to
publicly register for LEED Gold Certification prior to construction. Officially
opening in August 2009, the Vegas PBS Educational Technology Campus will house
Vegas PBS studios and offices, the CCSD Virtual High School, Educational Media
Services, the Emergency Response Data-casting System, public meeting rooms and
training facilities. Visit
www.VegasPBS.org for additional information and programming
highlights.
