This past year Altrusa International of Anaheim. Inc. added two new elementary schools to the Altrusa Creative Writing Project. These were Lincoln School and Olive Street School, which joined Ponderosa School. The Creative Writing Project for 2018 started on World Literacy Day on Sept. 8 and was made available to all fourth grade scholars in all three schools. This project was spearheaded by Altrusa International of Anaheim, Inc. in collaboration with the city of Anaheim’s librarian, Audrey Lujan, the Anaheim Elementary School District Superintendent Christopher Downing and the administration for all three schools.
This project co-chaired by Altrusans Charlene Bowden and Carol Latham, allowed scholars in grade four to write a 500-maximum word essay on “Finding My Voice—Telling My Story.” Through their writing the scholars had the opportunity to share their personal insights and stories about their families, culture, community, traditions, reasons for being thankful and much more.
At Lincoln School the teachers under the leadership of Principal Dr. Dale Hillyer were Liz Chaney, Julie Duvani, Kareen Flores, Maria Kessler and Edna Villarreal.
The leadership at the helm for the Olive Street School was Principal Michael Hiener and the teachers were Kristin Bush, Tracy Jonas and Lauren Jorgenen. At Ponderosa, Principal Yadira Moreno led teachers Alejandrina Arellano, Sheilas Flores, Billy Jean Jaramillo, Audra McAdams and Caitlyn Quail.
The judges from the Altrusa Club were: Maria Hoffman, Denice Gilb and Pat Hansmeyer; from the Anaheim Public Library: Rose Chen, David Laviguer and Stan Otfelie and Anaheim Public Library Foundation/APLF board members: Frank Barry, Charlene Bowden and Kelly Knight.
The top three winners from Lincoln School were Kenley Herrara (1st), Rodrigo Batista (2nd) and Keighley Chinchor (3rd); from the Olive Street School: Yesenia Mendez-Ortez (1st), Lyna Nguyen (2nd) and Jayrard Balanon (3rd). These winners received books, Certificates of Participation, Letters of Recognition from elected officials serving the City of Anaheim, Target Gift Cards and journals.
Representatives from elected officials, Anaheim City Council, AESD Superintendent Downing and Jackie Filbeck, president of the AESD Board of Trustees, and various judges were in attendance for at least one of the three individual award presentations.
After each presentation, the scholars were treated to a celebratory reception. All grade 4 project participants had the opportunity to select a book or two from the books donated by Altrusa.
The Top Ten winning essays from each school will be compiled into a school-specific booklet which will be distributed to all the winners, all 24 Anaheim Elementary Schools, the ten Anaheim Libraries and elected officials.
Altrusa Club of Anaheim is a part of an international organization of professionals and business people who provide for their communities through volunteer community service. Literacy is an essential focus for the Altrusa organization.
For more information on Altrusa and their projects or call 714-712-0266, email altrusaanaheim@gmail.com.
