April is national poetry month, and there’s a national contest that combines the love o poetry and love of pets that Coastal Family Magazine is supporting locally. 

The 3rd Annual "Paws for Poetry" contest challenges kids to write sonnets to spaniels, and prose for persian cats.  To help celebrate, budding Emily Dickinsons and Edgar Allan Poes are encouraged to participate.

To enter, children ages 5-12 are to write a poem to, and provide a photo of, their favorite animal friend and send them to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it by  April 5, 2010.  No exceptions can be made, as the entries must be sent to the national level by April 15.

Original poems of any length may be submitted in one of two categories: Group One (ages 5-9) and Group Two (ages 10-12). Coastal Family Magazine will submit all entries to the national contest, as well as choose a local winner in each category. Savannah writers Ted Carter and Vaughnette Goode-Walker will choose the local winners, and each winner will receive a gift certificate to a local toy store.

The national grand prize winner in each category will receive a $50.00 Amazon.com gift card. Two runners-up in each category will receive a $25.00 Amazon.com gift card. Children's author, poet, and Iraqi war veteran Thad Krasnesky, writer of the upcoming "That Cat Can't Stay" (Flashlight Press, 2010) is the contest judge. Krasnesky will also be providing winners with signed copies of his new book.

The Poetry Society of Georgia held a recent event at the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences featuring poet Waqas Khwaja.
The museum’s poetry series is co-sponsored by the Telfair Museum of Art, Southern Poetry Review, AASU’s Department of Language, Literature and Philosophy, The Live Oak Public Libraries, the Book Lady bookstore, the Savannah Book Festival and the Grassroots Arts Program.

The Grassroots Arts Program is supported in part by the Georgia Council for the Arts (GCA) through the appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly and administered by the City of Savannah's Department of Cultural Affairs. GCA is a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Khwaja is an associate professor of English at Agnes Scott College in Macon, and has edited several anthologies of poems translated into English from Pakistan’s seven major languages, including Modern Poetry from Pakistan, a National Endowment for The Arts project available from Eastern Washington University Press in March 2010,Cactus (1986) and Mornings in the Wilderness (1988).

He has published three collections of original poetry, No One Waits for the Train (2007), Six Geese From a Tomb at Medum (1987) and Mariam’s Lament (1992), a literary travelogue, Writers and Landscapes (1988), and others. 

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CF Staff Report

The Junior Leagues of Georgia, in partnership with Lt. Governor Casey Cagle and Dr. Holly Robinson, Commissioner of Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning, kicked off Million Minute Read Week in February.

The Junior League, including participation by the Savannah chapter, has a commitment of reading 1 million minutes to Georgia’s children by April 2010. The program was started in August 2009 in Georgia. Established in 1993, Bright from the Start provides the state’s four year-old children with high quality preschool experiences.

The Junior Leagues of Georgia believe a significant opportunity exists to improve learning through early childhood education, and supports the state’s commitment to fund Bright from the Start and related programs. Studies have proven that children who are exposed to a rich vocabulary have a greater chance of success in school. Reading aloud to children is one of the best ways to facilitate their oral language and vocabulary development.

By third grade, children must be reading to learn, not learning to read. It’s a critical component of early childhood education, and a great opportunity for Junior League volunteers to make a lasting impact in the lives of children.

“We in the Junior League see the State’s funding of early childhood education as a critical investment in Georgia’s future,” says Junior League of Savannah President Julie Allen. “The Capitol Day Kick Off for Million Minute Read Week was not only a fun event for the kids, but also a great reminder to our legislators of the importance of literacy in our communities.”

Currently, The Junior League of Savannah works in partnership with the Savannah-Chatham County Public School System and the Savannah community on the eMentoring program called In2Books which fosters reading, writing, and critical thinking skills by connecting caring adult mentors, called “pen pals,” with 50 forth grade students.

Pen pals and students read five books together and exchange online letters discussing significant issues in the books over the course of the academic year. “Pen pals from the Savannah community are an essential part of this initiative and are critical to its success.” states Allen.

The Junior League of Savannah has approximately 200 volunteers participating in that program.

The Junior League of Savannah has over 1,000 women members committed to promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women and improving communities through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. Its purpose is exclusively educational and charitable, according to Allen.

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Chatham Academy and the Royce Learning Center celebrated the completion of the school’s $350,000 in renovations with a ribbon cutting on Thursday morning, Oct 29.

A large group of parents were in attendance to watch students perform, hear about the school’s kick off of its annual fundraising event, and thank contributors to the project.

Several of the school’s older students said the new entrance looks much more “high tech” and gave them a “proud feeling, compared to the prior entrance” and exterior.

Ashley Smith with Neely Dales Commercial Realty, who is this year’s chairman of the board of the school, thanked Erickson Associates, Inc., led by Clate Ralston, president, who was the general contractor, and Cogdell & Mendrala Architects, who did the design.

On hand for the event were Claudia Thomas, the school’s past board president; Chelsea Davis, Mall Blvd. manager for Darby Bank; Connie Williams, chairman of the board of Darby Bank; Doug Yates, Darby Bank’s city president; Catherine Cooper, board member; and Liz McAlpin, with Travelers Insurance, also a board member.

Smith also thanked Chatham County for supporting the project. Darby Bank provided a portion of the lending on the project, along with funds raised by contributors to the school.

According to Doug Yates, Darby's new city president, who was formerly on the board of a similar school in Greenville, SC., such projects "are some of the most meaningful work you do."

Fresh Market and Krispy Kreme both donated food for the event.
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Oct. 23  11 AM Eckburg Auditorium, Savannah Campus

 Although they are from separate worlds, Thomas Swanson and Amber Cronk have more in common than might first be obvious. He’s from New York City; she’s from Effingham County, Georgia. Both left high school early without graduating, both struggled, both found their way to the Gateway to College program at Savannah Technical College where they both excelled – earning straight As in their foundation courses (a sequence of four classes required for Gateway students in their first quarter) and now, both will be celebrated on Friday, Oct. 23 at 11 a.m. as the first Gateway to College graduates from Savannah Technical College.

Thomas, a mature 19-year-old from New York, found that the Gateway to College brought the stability he needed to finish high school. He had moved a lot during his time in middle and senior high school and never graduated. He attended the Savannah Gateway Academy for three quarters and is now living with family members in New York and planning to continue his education.

When 20-year-old Amber Cronk came to the Gateway to College program in January, she had survived a car accident in her senior year of high school and a long, difficult recovery that had left her unable to graduate with her classmates. She had tried living on her own but was unable to support herself with limited skills and education. “Gateway was the first program that allowed me to get a high school diploma rather than a GED,” says Amber. “It was better for me – more convenient and the people were very understanding and helpful. They helped me to finish.”  Amber attended the Effingham Gateway Academy and plans to continue her education by enrolling in the nursing program at Savannah Technical College with the ultimate goal of becoming a pediatric nurse.

Gateway to College is part of a national network (www.gatewaytocollege.org) of programs for 16-20 year olds who have either dropped out of high school or on the verge of dropping out and are interested in returning to school and completing their high school diploma. Students simultaneously accumulate high school and college credits, earning their high school diploma while progressing toward a certificate, diploma or associate degree.

Through a partnership with Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools and Effingham County Public Schools, Savannah Technical College has initiated two charter high schools for Gateway participants— Savannah Gateway Academy and Effingham Gateway Academy. Through these academies, students will take all of the classes needed to complete their high school graduation requirements on the Savannah Technical College campus.

The Gateway to College program began at Savannah Technical College in fall of 2008 and currently enrolls 97 students. The next enrollment period will be in January 2010 for the winter quarter (applications are available now). For information, please call 912-443-5777 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
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