Bee in his bonnet
Alice Byrne fifth-grader wins regional poetry contest
Fifth-grader Levander Smith has always had a way with words, said Smith’s principal, Juli Peach.
“Levander has a gift for writing, especially for poetry,” Peach said recently, as Smith was finishing up his final day of fifth grade.
The Alice Byrne student recently found out he was the regional winner of the National Garden Club’s Youth Poetry Contest. The contest is put on in the fall locally by the Pecan Grove Garden Club, a chapter of the Federated Garden Clubs of Yuma.
This year’s theme was “We Three: Bees, Butterflies and Me,” said Marlena Parrott, program coordinator for the University of Arizona Yuma County 4-H program. “Levander’s poem was forwarded to the national level but we have not received any results.”
The poem, which Smith calls a “standard fifth-grade poem,” is not the first that Peach has come across from the fifth-grader’s pen.
“Not only did he win this contest, but Mr. Ochoa (Smith’s teacher) has brought me other poetry that he has written throughout the year, because his poetry stands out among his peers,” she said.
Smith said he and his teacher, Chris Ochoa, took the poem through three drafts before settling on a final version.
From the county level contest, poems are submitted to the state level, Parrott said. State winners move onto the regional level which includes several states, according to information about the contest on the Federated Garden Clubs of Yuma website.
Smith beat out fifth-graders from the Pacific Region of the National Garden Clubs Inc., which includes Washington, Arizona, California, Oregon, Nevada, Idaho, Alaska and Hawaii.
“He’s got plenty-a-gift for words, putting them together, creativity, all of the things that really go into poetry,” Peach said. “So, we’re really looking for a lot in his future as far as writing and I hope that he will continue to pursue a writing career.”
Smith, the son of Stephanie Pablo, said he likes bees because they help nature, and that winning the contest feels “pretty good.”
Students can already start brainstorming for next year’s contest theme “Let it Grow.” To get involved, contact Parrott at 928-7263904.