The Milan News-Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
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Young poet named tops
Symons Elementary School student grand-prize winner in national poetry contest
By Sue G. Collins, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: May 24, 2007
Winning poet Abbie Moccio unpacks books, journals, pens and posters she will share with her third-grade class at Symons Elementary School in Milan. Her parents, Kerri (left) and Craig Moccio were thrilled their daughter's poem was chosen from among 3,000 entries. Abbie's teacher, Jessica Stafford, helps unpack the gifts from Scholastic.
On a whim, 9-year-old Abbie Moccio sat down and put pencil to paper to enter a poetry contest that her mother, Kerri, had casually mentioned last month.
Abbie is in the third grade at Symons Elementary School and, though this wasn't assigned homework or even extra credit, she decided to go ahead and work with the first two lines provided by children's poet Jack Prelutsky for the Scholastic Poetry Party contest.
Almost 3,000 entries poured in to Scholastic's New York office, where staff, a university literature professor and team of published authors chose their favorite poem submitted by kindergarten and first-grade students from across the county.
Abbie's teacher at Symons, Jessica Stafford, received the letter congratulating Abbie on being selected as the grand-prize winner and was, at first, confused since she was unaware of the contest and Abbie's entry.
"I get lots of mail from Scholastic and almost tossed the letter in the trash. Then, two big boxes arrived full of books for the kids, the classroom and Abbie," said Stafford, who also will plan a pizza party for her class, compliments of Scholastic.
Kerri Moccio teaches reading in the Dearborn School District and had heard about the contest, though she didn't have her students participate. When Abbie was home for Milan's spring break, she decided to tackle the story, rhymes and the rhythm of her poem.
"I typed it up for her, and helped her work on the syllables and the beat," she said, "but she really wrote the poem."
The prizes -- a poetry library, pens, posters and personal journals -- will be shared among Stafford's students and the Moccio family will take home their own collection of poetry by Jack Prelutsky,
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