Support our SCHOOLS

POETRY OUT LOUD participants in Southern Utah

Part of our PURPOSE in joining Utah State Poetry Society is to further the love of poetry in our communities. One important way of doing this is to be a RESOURCE to your local school district. Select someone from your chapter to be a liaison to your school district. A simple phone call can help you get started on this task.

Six years ago, I started with a proposal for a Youth Poetry Contest sponsored by our Dixie Poets chapter in the Washington County School District. It took awhile to find the right person to talk to in the district. Her assignment on the District level was for outreach and Gifted and Talented Students. With this contact I had permission and access to sending out emails, brochures and getting the support of the district for my proposed contest now in it's sixth year with over 400 students participating from 1st to 12th grades and with prizes donated by the local community. Winners and their teachers are scholarshipped to our annual UTSPS Poetry in the Park.

Another way to create interest in poetry in tHe schools is to VOLUNTEER as judges for English Quest or Poetry Out Loud which is a national program to recognize talented students who read aloud established poets' works with the opportunity to win scholarships if they win on the national level and if they win statewide hundreds of dollars of poetry books for their individual schools. Dixie Chapter in St. George participated this weekend in Southern Utah's competition with seven students competing. It was fun and thrilling to see young people so involved in poetry.