The Sunflower and The Bee: Children's short story competition

Bee ~Route Competition

 The Sunflower and the Bee is a new short  story competition, a follow on to the successful Bee Route Project. The Bee Route Project was a joint initiative between Cllr. Jodie Neary and  Greystones, Delgany and Kilcoole Tidy Towns groups for National Biodiversity Week earlier this year and entailed giving out free Bee Route Starter Packs and lavender to locals in a bid to get people to grow pollinator-friendly plots in their gardens. Over 150 participants have signed up to the project so far. The success of the project has inspired the launch of the Bee Route Short Story Competition, open to all children 5 years and over from across Greystones, Delgany, Kilcoole and Newcastle.

The theme will be: The Sunflower and the Bee. .

When writing, children can take inspiration from watching bees buzzing around their new pollinator friendly sunflowers if they participated in the Bee Route Project or imagine a bee passing through well- known spots across Greystones, Delgany, Kilcoole and Newcastle. It can be anything they want associated with bees, pollinators and nature

Timeline:

The competition will run for one month from Monday 6th July to August 7th and is open to all children between the ages of 5 and 12 years, who currently reside in Greystones, Delgany, Kilcoole or Newcastle. Winners will be announced during National Heritage Week from 15th August – 23rd. More details to follow.

The competition:

Children are asked to write a short story (by themselves!) of up to 300 words on the subject:  The Sunflower and the Bee. They can take inspiration from watching bees buzzing around their new pollinator friendly plots if they participated in the Bee Route Project or can imagine a bee passing through all the lovely well- known spots across Greystones, Delgany, Kilcoole and Newcastle.

Age categories will apply to the following age brackets: 5-6 years, 7-8 years, 9-10, 11-12 years.

Please email contributions to Jodie.neary@socialdemocrats.ie alongside the name, address and age of the child including a contact number of a parent. 

Judging panel:

A panel of judges will include local artists and writers and other people heavily involved in biodiversity work in the area. They include:

Michael O’Reilly, editor of Bray Arts Journal

Jillian Godsil, broadcaster with Wicklow Good News

Marlena Murphy, producer with Wicklow Good News

A representative from a Garden Centre (TBC)

David O’Reilly, Author and member of Greystones Tidy Towns

Deirdre Burns, Wicklow County Council

 

The prizes:

The competition is being sponsored by the Arboretum and the top five winners will receive vouchers – €100 for the overall winner and €50 for another 4 runner ups! They will also get to have their picture taken by the very kind Eva Blake at a location to be confirmed, together with the other winners (social distancing style!), and individually.

Furthermore, kids will also get to have their stories posted  on the County Wicklow Heritage Site for National Heritage Week.

We will also pitch the winning stories to Wicklow papers and hopefully get a spread for the chosen story!

 

No Comments

Start the ball rolling by posting a comment on this page!

Add a comment about this page

Your email address will not be published.

//**