Power of the Pen Regional Competition

Happy Sunday! Yesterday I spent the day being a parent chaperone for Rebecca's Middle School's Power of the Pen team as they headed to the Regional Competition. 2 weeks ago, they competed at District's and 11 out of their 12 writers advanced to Regionals. Rebecca was one of the 11 who moved on. 

Regionals were held at Otterbein University in Columbus and there were over 150 kids there representing 40 different schools. While the kids were off writing, I walked around campus for 2 hours. The weather was perfect. It started off cold but the sun was out and then it warmed up to the 50s. Felt so good to be in the sunshine and just enjoy the atmosphere. I *almost* felt guilty as these kids and the judges were in classrooms and I was out taking advantage of the sun. LOL 

This building was gorgeous and where Rebecca spent her time writing! 

I loved the look of this building.

Where the kids and I had lunch.

Back to the writers....They had 3 different 40 minute writing sessions. Then was lunch and waiting for the final results before the awards ceremony. You could tell that the kids were relieved at lunch. We had lunch at Otterbein's student cafeteria. The food was ok... alot better than what I remembered college food being like when I was a college student. LOL 

Rebecca and her friend Zoey 

After lunch, it was time to return for the award's ceremony. They started off with the 7th grade individual awards. They award medals to the top 12 and those 12 automatically get a spot in the state finals. Rebecca took home 12th place!! She was so excited. She was the only writer from her school to place in the top 12. 

Waiting for the awards ceremony to start

12th place!!

After the individual and team awards, they then awarded "Best of Round" awards from the District competitions. For these awards, they take all the writing ranked with a 1 in the each round and send them off to another group of judges who read them and discuss and basically take time to decide which one is the best. Well, Rebecca won "Best of Round 1" from Districts for her story!! That was a nice surprise as she didn't think she did that great of writing in Districts. 

I am so freaking proud of her! Now she has almost 2 months to get ready for the State competition. I love that she is so creative and loves to write and I love that she is seeing success. 

Today we have gone to PSR and Church. Rebecca is now doing homework and Jacob and Ben are playing. Later we will head to my parents' house as my Dad wants to have a little pizza party to celebrate Rebecca's accomplishments yesterday. 

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!