The Silver Pen Award is presented by the Kiwanis Club of Marietta Golden K to an elementary school student in Cobb County for completing and submitting a creative writing response to a writing prompt. The 2020 Silver Pen winner is Jeremiah Perry from Rocky Mount Elementary School. Jeremiah won the award last year when he was a fourth grader, but the pandemic delayed the recognition ceremony until February 2021.
As explained by Jim Perry, Past President of the Kiwanis Club of Marietta Golden K (no relation to the winner), “The Silver Pen Award is designed to encourage creative writing”. Students read the beginning of an interesting short story, create an engaging end to the story, then submit it to their 4th grade teacher for review. Each homeroom teacher selects the top three entries from the class and the Assistant Principal chooses one finalist from each class. The four finalists are given “a numbered score” by former educators who are now members of the Kiwanis Club of Marietta Golden K. All the stories are submitted without names throughout the selection process, so the judges do not know which student wrote the story.
Jeremiah received the following special gifts: A Kiwanis Club Pen, a Silver Pen, twenty one-dollar coins, and an engraved plaque from the Kiwanis Club of Marietta Golden K recognizing Jeremiah for his writing accomplishment.
Jim Perry spoke for all present (at the socially-distanced, outside awards ceremony on February 10, 2021) when he told Jeremiah, “We hope you will take that writing skill and put it to use throughout your life, because our whole purpose is to encourage good writers to be better writers. You did well,” Assistant Principal Dr. Sage Doolittle added, “Rocky Mount is so proud of Jeremiah! We are thrilled that he has embraced a love for creative writing and that writing passion will serve him well in the future.”
The Kiwanas Club of Marietta Golden K branch is made up of retirees and is based at the Tim D. Lee Senior Center in East Cobb. The Golden K Kiwanis Club was organized in 1991 under the Kiwanis International Organization to benefit the Children of the Community and the World by providing financial support and direct service to build tomorrow’s leaders. Before the COVID pandemic, the Golden K club met weekly at the East Cobb Senior Center, now known as the Tim Lee Senior Center.
>> This article was originally published on page 34 in the EAST COBBER March/April issue. <<
