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Quad Cities third grader Paul Schwartz, of Bettendorf, IA
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QC's Third Grader Wins National PBS Writing Contest

July 28, 2014

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MOLINE, IL – A Quad Cities third grader has been named a national winner in the PBS KIDS Writers Contest.

Paul Schwartz, of Bettendorf, IA, won third place in the third grade division of the writing contest. His entry was submitted by WQPT, the Quad Cities PBS station. Twelve children in kindergarten through third grade were chosen from thousands of submissions from 62 PBS stations across the country.

Each of the PBS stations collaborated with schools, public libraries and other community organizations to hold a contest in each of the communities. Local winners were then entered in the national contest.

"This is the third time one of our local winners has gone on to win on the national level," said WQPT General Manager Mary Pruess. "We are very proud of Paul Schwartz and his story, 'If I Were An Engineer," and all of the 450 entries we received. A special thanks to all of the parents, caregivers and teachers who encouraged the creativity of our young writers."

The national winners received prizes from LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc., including a LeapReader Reading and Writing System along with educator-developed LeapReader books and maps.

"We were thrilled to see another impressive batch of submissions for the annual PBS KIDS Writers contest," said PBS Children's Programming General Manager Lesli Rotenberg. "PBS KIDS and our local stations always enjoy encouraging children to use their imaginations to create memorable stories. We look forward to supporting the next generation of creative thinkers as they develop important writing skills that will lay the foundation of success in both school and life."

The national winners and their stories are available at pbskids.org/writerscontest. For more information about WQPT, visit wqpt.org.


Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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