Foothills Forum-Rappahannock News Storytelling Contest ceremony celebrates winners

Watch the awards ceremony:

Foothills Forum and the Rappahannock News last week celebrated the winners and participants of this year’s Storytelling Contest at the Little Washington Theatre — which turned out the highest number of contest submissions in five years.

About a dozen judges were tasked with carefully reviewing 88 contest submissions from students at the Rappahannock County Public Schools (RCPS), Wakefield Country Day School (WCDS), Belle Meade Montessori School and Hearthstone School.

The submissions were handed over to the judges anonymously — judges had no knowledge of the students’ name or school.

Middle and high school students were tasked with answering one of six prompts using any medium of their choice: essays, photography, artwork, videography, songwriting, poetry, or any other creative route.

First place winners were presented with $500, second place winners received $300 and third place winners, $200.

The winning entries from middle and high school students will be published in the Rappahannock News in May and will also appear online.

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Middle School (7-8)

First place: Mac Wofford, WCDS, 7th grade

Second place: Claudia Archilla, WCDS, 7th grade

Third place: Amirina McArthur, Hearthstone, 7th grade

Honorable Mentions

Rose Grimsley, RCPS, 7th grade

Genia Lin, WCDS, 7th grade

Valerie Cook, RCPS, 8th grade

High School (9-12)

First place: Taylor Pullen, RCPS, 10th grade

Second place: Emma Brown, RCPS, 11th grade

Third place: Arella Nagle, WCDS, 9th grade

Honorable Mentions

Andrew Witt, RCPS, 10th grade

Grayson Wolfe, WCDS, 9th grade

Daniel Fletcher, WCDS, 10th grade

Taylor Schuler, Hearthstone, 11th grade 

Peter Miglino, WCDS, 12th grade 

The awards ceremony program:

Foothills Forum is an independent, community-supported nonprofit tackling the need for in-depth research and reporting on Rappahannock County issues.

The group has an agreement with Rappahannock Media, owner of the Rappahannock News, to present this series and other award-winning reporting projects. More at foothillsforum.org.