Fifth grader wins writing contest

In a few words, 10-year-old Brielle Fearon summed up what makes her family special: respect, encouragement, caring, cooperative and responsible.

It's qualities like those that inspired Brielle to write herself free passes to a complimentary dinner, a Broadway play and a free class at the Patel Conservatory performing arts school.

Brielle, a FishHawk Elementary School pupil, was the 2009 fifth-grade winner of the three-county Patel Conservatory's first "Find your Wonderland Essay Contest."

Open to students from fifth- to eighth-grade in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties, this year's topic was "What makes your famiily wonderful?" Brielle had a few answers.

"What makes my family wonderful is that they provide for my meals; they love and care for me; and they possess good character traits," she wrote. "Some families don't work together as a team, but my family does."

In her FishHawk fifth-grade writing and reading class, teacher Erin Lee encouraged students to enter the contest as part of a class writing assignment and take advantage of the chance to develop their writing skills and possibly win prizes.

Brielle lives in FishHawk Ranch with her father, George, mother, Evelyn and 13-year-old brother, Sebastian, an eighth-grader at Randall Middle School. When her father got the call Nov. 20 from the conservatory that she had won the fifth-grade title, her father didn't believe it.

"My dad said, 'Brielle, come here!' I thought I was in trouble," she said. "Then he played the message for me. I jumped up and down on the couch and ran and told my teachers, who live nearby. It's the first big thing I've won."

According to the guidelines, the essays had to be 500 words or less. Tina James, education programs manager for Patel Conservatory, said most teachers choose to adapt the contest into the classroom curriculum as a class project. The essays were judged on content.

In addition to herself, James said Brielle was able to take two teachers Dec. 2 to see the Broadway Family Night Performance of the play "Wonderland: Alice's New Musical Adventure" at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. Brielle asked Lee and fifth-grade teacher Alicia Laing to go along to the play, as well as have dinner at Tampa's Maestro's Restaurant.

James said 641 essays from the three counties were submitted, 301 of them from fifth-graders. She said one only winner was selected from each grade.

"We were completely overwhelmed; we didn't except to receive so many essays," she said. "But what this does is ties in the love for the arts with the curriculums students are learning."

FishHawk elementary Assistant Principal Jan Kelly said Brielle's accomplishment showed FishHawk's commitment to improving student writing.

"We have dedicated teachers that from kindergarten to fifth-grade continue to teach and introduce new crafts to our students that they are able to implement into contests like these," she said.

Brielle said after she writes, she spends a lot of time editing and rewriting her papers. She said those habits may help her to become a news reporter, lawyer or judge some day.

"I've thought it would be cool to win, so I tried my best, "she said.