Thursday, February 16th, the Cranston West warmly welcomed Write RI’s Co-Founder Hester

Kaplan to surprise one of our very own Falcons Abigail Lebowitz. Around 8:30 A.M. Abigail was announced winner of the Write RI contest.

Abigail Lebowitz is an avid writer. While originally she didn’t have high hopes for the competition, the judges were blown away by her writing. Abigail’s sister, Maple, encouraged her to submit her writing for this wonderful opportunity to win. Abigail reported that she wrote about Rocky Point, which was once an amusement park. Abigail expressed that there was “...something about the items that were left from when it was an amusement park was really interesting.”

The remnants of the joy and memories that were created in this amusement park were left alone when Rocky Point became a park. Abigail shared that they emitted a feeling of “abandonment, like there was something magical here, now it's gone.” For Abigail this feeling was eerily close to the feeling of losing a family member.

For the judges, this idea was touching and brilliant. Upon being surprised by the judge of Write RI Abigail was excited and happy. Having entered writing competitions before, this was Abigail’s first major win.

What is Write RI? Write RI is an organization that is run out of a school named School One

which is located in Providence, RI. Cofounder of Write RI, Hester Kaplan, explained that Write RI is a “statewide high school writing competition with a Rhode Island theme.”

Currently, the organization allows for grades 7-9 and 10-12 to submit their writing for a chance

to win. As of right now there are readings all over the state. This contest is a Rhode Island exclusive and submitted stories are required to follow the Rhode Island theme. This year the competition accumulated a total of 165 submissions which was reported to be the highest they have ever received.

This is the organization’s 6th year and they are steadily growing. The future looks bright for this organization and our young competitor Abigail Lebowitz. Abigail’s parents, also present at the ceremony, were ecstatic. Claudia Covert and Mathew Lebowitz expressed that Abigail was very interested in writing and that she writes all the time. Mathew Lebowitz stated that it’s nice to put something out there because even “submitting is a win.” To support Abigail Claudia and Mathew encouraged her to keep writing and keep submitting.

Our last major attendee of the ceremony was our very own ELA Department head, Stephanie Kaffenberger. Stephanie learned about this contest through an email from Write RI and has been encouraging students to enter throughout the years. Kaffenburger had a few students receive honorable mentions in the past however, this is the first time one of her students has won. She expressed her excitement for Abigail and explained, “She is not only a hard worker and a great writer, but she genuinely loves writing so it was just really really great to see her rewarded for it.”