Budding writers answer the call to honour the ANZACs
Poignant poems, reflective accounts and creative stories telling of the ANZAC experience were received from primary and secondary school students from all corners of the Riverina and Central West, in response to the call for entries in the Nationals’ Federal Member for Riverina and Minister for Small Business, Michael McCormack’s annual ANZAC writing competition.
“The level of effort, research and creativity invested in the entries received made judging the winning entries very difficult and I was not only impressed with the quantity of entries, but also extremely proud of their quality,” Mr McCormack said.
The theme for this year’s competition was “ANZAC Day in the Riverina and Central West” and Mr McCormack said judging this year’s competition was a tough exercise, with close to 800 entries received from 35 schools across the electorate.
There were eight winners and eight highly commended prizes awarded to students from each corner of the electorate, with winners coming from Gundagai to Matong and Lockhart to Forbes.
“Special mention must be made about two students from West Wyalong, Jack De Britt and Oscar Mason both of West Wyalong High School who have both won this year and did so previously when they entered the competition in 2013 and 2012 respectively.
“Before this year no student, despite many trying, had repeated their previous success and the fact two from not only the same town but the same school have accomplished the feat is a credit to them and their English and history teachers.
“I’m looking forward over the coming weeks to visit as many of the winners as possible and presenting each of them with a book from the Australian War Memorial. It will also allow me to congratulate and thank every student who took the time to participate in this important educational exercise.”
All winners of the writing competition will have their piece of writing published in Mr McCormack’s commemorative ANZAC booklet which will soon start to arrive in letterboxes across the electorate and each student who participated in the competition will receive a personally signed commemorative certificate from Mr McCormack.
ENDS