{"id":13151,"date":"2026-02-11T17:38:57","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T17:38:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/?p=13151"},"modified":"2026-02-11T17:38:57","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T17:38:57","slug":"29th-annual-youth-writing-contest-underway-at-toledo-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/11\/29th-annual-youth-writing-contest-underway-at-toledo-library\/","title":{"rendered":"29th Annual Youth Writing Contest Underway at Toledo Library"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The Ruth Blank Vener and Mary Jane Blank McCormick Youth Writing Contest encourages creative expression and literacy skills<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>TOLEDO, Ohio \u2014 Youth in grades K-12 are invited to participate in the Toledo Library\u2019s Ruth Blank Venner and Mary Jane Blank McCormick Youth Writing Contest. Students are encouraged to craft a story in response to this year\u2019s topic: \u201cYou\u2019ve become an animal! Do you have fur, feathers or scales? Where do you go? What do you do?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis year\u2019s writing contest invites young people to let their imaginations run wild,\u201d said Nancy Eames, youth services coordinator at the Toledo Library. \u201cBy asking students to imagine life as an animal, we\u2019re encouraging creativity, curiosity and storytelling and giving kids a fun, accessible way to express themselves through writing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The contest was established by Leon W. Blank to honor the memory of his sisters and to promote reading among area youth. Now in its 29th year, more than 21,000 students have participated since the contest was first held in 1997.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWriting contests help young people build confidence, strengthen literacy skills and see their ideas as something worth sharing,\u201d Eames said. \u201cThey create space for youth voices to be heard and celebrated, and they remind students that their stories, no matter their age, have value.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The contest is open to students in Lucas County and adjacent counties only. Teachers may submit entries for their class, but only one entry per student. To enter, a story must meet the following guidelines:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>be an original work that comes from the writer\u2019s imagination without the use of artificial intelligence<\/li>\n<li>include a beginning, middle and end<\/li>\n<li>be 500 words or fewer<\/li>\n<li>be handwritten or typed (12-point font)<\/li>\n<li>be stapled to the entry form or entered online<\/li>\n<li>be text only (no pictures)<\/li>\n<li>fit on a single sheet of 8\u00bd-by-11 inch paper<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Grand prizes are awarded in four categories that are organized by grade level: K-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12. Prizes include $200 Visa gift cards for first place, $100 Visa gift cards for second place and $50 Visa gift cards for third place, plus a $25 Visa gift card for each branch finalist (one per location).<\/p>\n<p>Entries are due by March 28, 2026 and can be dropped off at any Library location or submitted online.<\/p>\n<p>The Ruth Blank Venner and Mary Jane Blank McCormick Youth Writing Contest is sponsored by the Library Legacy Foundation of the Toledo Lucas County Public Library.<\/p>\n<p>For more information, visit toledolibrary.org\/writing-contest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Ruth Blank Vener and Mary Jane Blank McCormick Youth Writing Contest encourages creative expression and literacy skills TOLEDO, Ohio \u2014 Youth in grades K-12 are invited to participate in the Toledo Library\u2019s Ruth Blank Venner and Mary Jane Blank McCormick Youth Writing Contest. Students are encouraged to craft a story in response to this<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13152,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_rtcl_gb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[298],"class_list":["post-13151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"aioseo_notices":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/toledo-library-writing-contesty.jpg",700,372,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/toledo-library-writing-contesty.jpg",700,372,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/toledo-library-writing-contesty.jpg",700,372,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/toledo-library-writing-contesty-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/toledo-library-writing-contesty-300x159.jpg",300,159,true],"large":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/toledo-library-writing-contesty.jpg",640,340,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/toledo-library-writing-contesty.jpg",700,372,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/toledo-library-writing-contesty.jpg",700,372,false],"rtcl-gallery":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/toledo-library-writing-contesty.jpg",700,372,false],"rtcl-thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/toledo-library-writing-contesty-320x240.jpg",320,240,true],"rtcl-gallery-thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/toledo-library-writing-contesty-150x105.jpg",150,105,true],"psacp-medium":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/toledo-library-writing-contesty-500x372.jpg",500,372,true],"rpwe-thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/toledo-library-writing-contesty-45x45.jpg",45,45,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"LaPrensa Newspaper","author_link":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/author\/laprensa\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/category\/articles\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Articles<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"The Ruth Blank Vener and Mary Jane Blank McCormick Youth Writing Contest encourages creative expression and literacy skills TOLEDO, Ohio \u2014 Youth in grades K-12 are invited to participate in the Toledo Library\u2019s Ruth Blank Venner and Mary Jane Blank McCormick Youth Writing Contest. Students are encouraged to craft a story in response to this","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13151"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13153,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13151\/revisions\/13153"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13151"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=13151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}