Aspen’s 25th Fraser Creative Writing Contest winners announced
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Jill Sheeley/Courtesy photo
Local children’s book author Jill Sheeley and Aspen Elementary School’s Ada Friedman have successfully put on the 25th year of the Fraser Creative Writing Contest for third and fourth graders.
The Fraser Creative Writing Contest is named after Sheeley’s beloved Fraser, the star of all of her “Adventures of Fraser the Yellow Dog” book series. The contest’s theme this year was the Olympics, including stories that involved the Olympics on other planets, future times, animals competing and new and unique sports for participation.
This year’s awards assembly at the District Theater featured Former Mayor Torre and a video message from gold medalist Alex Ferreira congratulating the students’ writing. The winners are as follows:
Third grade
- First Place: Lily Spitz
- Second Place: Sasha Hartman
- Third Place: Lexi Johnston, Beatrice Robison and Ella Fortier
- Golden Honorable Mentions: Finn Anderson, Maisey Farrell, Weston Kay and Margaret Van Arsdale
- Honorable Mentions: Charlotte Janian, Piper Sherman, Buddy Pegler, Cooper Cagley, Maddie Louthis, Asha Visram Kulak, Michael Hefner, Cash Coman, Winnie Anderson, Kennedy Knapp, Graham Shook, Lily Marsh and Azura Hechtkopf
Fourth grade
- First Place: Bonnie Boyd
- Second Place: Vivienne Gilmore and Zoe Holstein
- Third Place: Christopher Roeder, CC Johnston and Maddie Waldron
- Golden Honorable Mentions: Sydney Adam, Hana Meleg, Lily Lyons, Sienna Sohn, Luka Marolda, Juniper Jones, Dagney Watson and Kailani Silva
- Honorable Mentions: London Lathrop, Jack Kofoid, Georgia Welgos, Simone Kilner, Summer Kilner, Graham Rowland, Lucy Heintz and Ava Turchin
“Wavolympics, The Awesome Race!” by Lily Spitz (third grade winner)
I knew something special was about to happen, it was almost time for the Wavolympics! It takes place on a beautiful lake in a beautiful place in Maine. It is in a green forest made of pine trees. Wavyolympics happens at a summer camp at Wavus. Wavus is a sleep away summer camp for girls. Every year all the campers come together and compete with sports. The sports are–swimming, canoeing, paddle boarding, rope climbing, sailing, pottery and fastest to set up a tent.
There was one cabin that was really excited–Respect! They love to participate. They have won ten golds, three silvers and two bronze. They won last year’s Wavolympics.
Their names are: Summer, Sal, Lily, Jada, Katie, Sara, Emily, Susie, Beth, Clara, Maggi, Madi and Julie. There are other cabins too. Some of the other cabin names are: Aster, Foxglove, Laurel, Ash, Elm, Oak, Kindness, Responsibility and Caring.
Respect talked about the sports and who was going to do what. They practiced every day. They rise in the morning and go to bed late at night.
Finally the day arrived it was time to compete. Paddleboarding, swimming, canoeing and sailing take place on the lake. Rope climbing takes place in the woods. Fastest to set up a tent is on the field. Pottery is in a building by the field. The activities happen all over the camp.
Summer and Jada went to the ropes course. Lily and Sal went to the lake to sail. Katie and Sara went to the lake to paddle board. Emily and Susie went to the pottery studio. Beth and Clara went to do the tent set up race at the field. Maggi and Madie went to the lake for the canoeing race. Julia went to the lake to swim in a race.
At sailing, Sal and Lily get in their own boats and in place to begin their race. The race is five laps around the lake. The flag waves and fifteen boats take off. The wind is whistling! Sal takes the lead as they come around the first buoy. Lily comes up from behind to take the lead on the second lap. Lily looks back and sees Sal’s boat tipping over. Oh no! Lily tacks back and races to help Sal right her boat. They both get the boat back up and start their third lap. They start tacking and coming about to steal the wind. On the last lap they get in front. Lily’s boat starts to take the lead–it’s almost the finish line. A huge gust of wind pushed her across the finish line. Lily takes gold! Sal’s right behind her and takes silver.
Sal and Lily rush back to their cabin. They find all their friends. Everyone’s excited to share their own news. Sal starts and they go around in a circle. Emily and Susie built with clay a mug with designs on it, they get bronze. Summer and Jada finished the partner rope course by climbing through tires the quickest and won gold. Katie and Sara paddle boarded through on the lake twice without falling but did not win gold, silver or bronze, Maggi and Madie canoed through the maze where they had to paddle with all their might. Then they raced to the finish line and won silver! Julia had to dive in and swim around the platforms in freestyle to elementary backstroke. She came in with a bronze medal. Beth and Clara had to start by taking the tent out of the bag and laying it out and putting the poles together and in the holes to make it stand but the tent fell over they had to start again–they did not win or get a medal.
In total Respect won this year’s Wavolympics! They had so much fun competing with their friends in their cabin and everyone at camp. They were so tired but excited for all the closing activities planned.
In the evening, they had a ceremony where all the medals were awarded. The medal was in a circle with a picture of the lake on it. Lily and Sal chose Pink Pony Club to play while they got their gold and silver medals. Next up came a campfire with lots of s’mores. Lily and Sal and their friends were so excited to roast marshmallows at the campfire with their friends. The stars were shining and they were all laughing and thinking about next year’s Wavolympics!
They go to sleep dreaming about next year’s Wavolympics.
“Alien in the Olympics” by Bonnie Boyd (fourth grade winner)
“Now children, come along,” said Mrs. Banks, the 7th grade P.E. substitute. “I know that this is all very exciting, but we only have two hours,” she told them, tapping her watch. Mrs. Banks was taking the children from all of the grade levels who had done exceptionally well in physical education to see the olympic flame for the first time in eight years!
“Pst! Aleia,” whispered Lizzy, the eighth grade basketball champ.
“What!?” Aleia asked in a quiet voice.
“Look up.”
Aleia lifted her head to a miraculous sight, a titanic, blue flame loomed over her.
“I can’t believe it’s finally here,” Lizzy said excitedly, “after so many years in World War VII and a cancellation of the Olympics. It’s happening. The 3086 Olympic games.”
Everyone was bursting with excitement, so when Mrs. Banks announced that they were going inside, everyone rushed through the doors. They climbed what seemed like 1,000 flights of stairs, and every few floors they would stop and look at the exhibits, each one filled with photos, models, and medals, memories of each year’s games.
When the middle-schoolers got to the top floor they expected to see walls filled with pictures and glass boxes enclosing models of skis and swimsuits, but there were just blank walls. “This is where this Olympic games will be memorialized,” Mrs. Banks explained. “Now let us go see the flame.”
As soon as the kids arrived at the floor of the flame, they sprinted over as fast as speedskaters and stood in awe, gawking at the blue mass of fire flicker in front of them, captivated.
Aleia stood watching just like everyone of her peers, but unlike them, she was going to be a competitor in the Olympics! Aleia was ski racing, and competing in every race for women, Slalom, GS, Super-G, and Downhill!
Aleia had an extremely special talent. She aced all of her tests in phys. ed., language arts, science, arithmetic, and English! Her mind was able to multi-task in such a way neurologists would be awestruck by her. Aleia found a passion for ski racing and stuck with it. She worked her butt off so hard that she qualified for the Olympics, the youngest person in history!
As Aleia examined it, the massive torch started to tip. Each person watched in horror and sheer terror as the gargantuan mass of fire started its descent. Everyone in this building and within a quarter mile would be brought to their deaths.
“I’m sorry,” Mrs. Banks said weakly with tears in her eyes. Boom! The titanium torch stick echoed. Glass shattered, people screamed, and the fire spread, destroying everyone and everything.
Aleia watched helplessly as hope and humanity went down in flames. She caught a glimpse of the fire moving toward her and prepared for her death, but it never came. The fire just backed away as if it were scared of her.
In a split second, the glass crumbled and Aleia fell through, getting many nasty cuts and bruises. She was even slashed with glass all the way from her forehead to her collarbone, making a three inch deep gash cut diagonally! When she hit solid ground she passed out.
When Aleia regained consciousness she assumed she was in a hospital, but she wasn’t. Aleia arched her neck and saw unfamiliar faces looking upon her. They spoke. “Hello Aleia,” one said in a language not belonging to humanity, but somehow she understood.
“Where am I?” Aleia asked.
“With your family,” responded a sweet voice.
“What!?” she shouted, incredulous.
“When you were born, we Athiamata peoples were in a war with seventeen different galaxies, so all of us came to the agreement that you would go to earth. A kind family took you in and loved you well, but the war has come to an end, and we’ve come to retrieve you,” the soft voice told her.
“But I have to compete!” Aleia wailed, “I made it in and want to try! Please.”
“OK,” responded the sweet voice that turned out to be her mother.
The Athiamata family relieved their dear relative of her scars and sent her to earth to compete.
Race after race she surprised herself, the judges, the crowds, and the whole planet with gold medals. She swelled with pride standing on the podium singing the national anthem, medal around neck. This brought her back to the nine-year-old girl yearning for a spot on the podium, watching her friends stand up while she was stuck in the waves of people down below. She tried harder each day, going faster, getting stronger, and now she got what she had worked so hard for.
Aleia brought all of her medals to her home planet, but it wasn’t just medals, it was tradition and culture. She showed Athiamata some of earth’s ways, and they had shown her theirs.
In time, Aleia learned how to live the Athiamata way with a little bit of her own pizzazz. She was quite happy there and lived with her family for the rest of her life.
Life was tough sometimes on her new planet though. She missed all of her friends and was an outsider. It took almost four years for her to feel at home, but when she did, a kind of warmth was always flowing inside her. “A happy ending,” Aleia said to herself, and indeed it was. Life was great, not just a smooth road, but one filled with terrain, and terrain gave her amazing new life purpose and meaning.
