Nine Students Win "Courage in New
Jersey" Essay Contest in 2006
May 2006 -- Nine New Jersey students in
grades 4-12 have been named by the New Jersey Press Foundation as winners of
a statewide essay contest sponsored by the
foundation's Newspaper in Education and Youth
Readership Committee.
The contest,
with the theme "Courage in New Jersey,"
encouraged students to read their local
newspapers to find facts about courageous acts of
New Jersey citizens. Six newspapers with a
combined circulation of more than 780,000
participated in the contest.
The following
students will be awarded U.S. Savings Bonds:
High School
Division (grades 10-12): 1st Place, Brenton
Partridge of Califon, 10th grade at Voorhees High
School, nominated by the Hunterdon County
Democrat, Flemington; 2nd Place, Ebony Ray of
Mount Holly, 12th grade at Rancocas Valley
Regional High School, nominated by the Burlington
County Times, Willingboro; 3rd Place, Meagan
Docherty of Bloomindale, 11th grade at Butler
High School, nominated by The Record (Bergen
County).
Middle School
Division (grades 7-9): 1st Place, Abigail
deUriarte of Sicklerville, 9th grade at Timber
Creek Regional High School, nominated by the
Courier-Post, Cherry Hill; 2nd Place, Leigh Anne
Patullo of Frenchtown, 7th grade at Kingwood
Township School, nominated by the Hunterdon
County Democrat; 3rd Place, Joseph Sipos of
Columbus, 8th grade at Northern Burlington County
Regional Middle School, nominated by the
Burlington County Times.
Elementary
School Division (grades 4-6): 1st Place, Marielle
Gerbino of Toms River, 5th grade at East Dover
Elementary School, nominated by The Press of
Atlantic City; 2nd Place, Nicholas Cockinos of
Fort Lee, 5th grade at Fort Lee School #4,
nominated by The Record; 3rd Place, Samantha
Siegel of Montclair, 4th grade at Hillside
Elementary School, nominated by The Star-Ledger,
Newark.
First place
winners will receive $1,000 bonds, second place
winners will receive $500 bonds, and third place
winners will receive $100 bonds.
The 16
students who were nominated for the statewide
competition placed first in local competitions
operated by newspapers that participated in the
"Profile of Courage: The Story of Nellie
Bly" reading project sponsored by NJPF
earlier in the school year.
Judges for
the contest were Newspaper in Education
coordinators from Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and
Virginia.
35 Attend Mid-Atlantic
NIE and Youth Readership Conference
May 2006 -- Thirty-five
youth page editors and newspaper-in-education
professionals from Vermont to Virginia attended
the 2006 Mid-Atlantic NIE and Youth Readership
Conference May 4-5 in North Wildwood, NJ.
This is the first
time such a conference as been sponsored by the
New Jersey Press Foundation.
The conference
program consisted of eight sessions conducted by
NIE professionals from New York, Pennsylvania and
New Jersey and by representatives from the Audit
Bureau of Circulations and the Newspaper
Association of America Foundation. Details about
the program can be retrieved by clicking on the
graphic at left.
"Conferences
always energize me to do better," said Liza
Mattison, NIE coordinator from The Morning Call
in Allentown, Pa.
Mike Peterson, NIE
coordinator from the Post-Star in Glens Falls,
New York, said he picked up a lot of insights for
my own program. He said one of the highlights of
the program was "getting good ideas from
topics I didn't think I'd care about."
In addition to the
content offered, the conference featured special
presentations by several vendors of NIE and youth
readership products and services for newspapers.
Click here to retrieve a PDF version of
the program for the conference.
Newspaper
Foundation Grants To Purchase Newspapers
Top $394,000
Corporations,
foundations and individuals have donated
more than $440,000 to the New Jersey
Press Foundation to support the
state's Newspaper in Education programs.
Through December 2007,
nine newspapers have received NJPF grants that purchased
2.8 million
newspapers for classrooms in their
circulation areas and for special projects such as
spelling bees, science fairs and summer reading
initiatives.
Statewide, more than 3,100
classrooms and 78,000 students have
benefited from the NJPF grants program,
which began in July 2001. The program
gives Newspaper in Education donors a choice of sending
their gifts to the New Jersey Press Foundation
or sending their checks directly to a
specific newspaper.
Using this NJPF program
may allow individuals, corporations and
foundations to deduct their donations as
a charitable contribution.
How the NIE Grants Program Works
- Newspapers may
offer donors the option of
sending their grants to the New
Jersey Press Foundation to
cover the cost of sponsoring at
least one classroom set of
newspapers or to support other NIE projects and events.
- When a grant is received, NJPF
notifies the newspaper and requests an invoice.
- On
receipt of the invoice, the foundation writes a check to
the newspaper to purchase
newspapers sent to schools or to
support NIE projects and educational events
the newspaper sponsors.
- NJPF offers teachers
continuing-education credit for newspaper-sponsored
workshops they attend on
the use of newspapers in their
classes. Participating newspapers
may use the foundation's official
registration with the New Jersey
Department of Education as a
provider of in-service training
programs for teachers.
In addition to giving
donors the opportunity to sponsor
classroom sets of a specific newspaper,
companies and foundations may prefer to
broaden the reach of their grants by
targeting certain kinds of classes or
schools throughout New Jersey.
The foundation's NIE Committee will help
donors identify target schools and
classes, including but not limited to:
- Classes that
include subject modules such as
dealing with violence or
addressing tolerance issues.
- Classes that teach
specific subjects such as health
and family life (pharmaceutical
companies), the environment
(energy companies) or business
(brokerage companies and banks).
- Classes attended
by children of employees (a
company could offer to split the
cost of classroom sets with its
employees).
- Special NIE
projects such as teacher
workshops, science fairs and
spelling bees.
For more information
about providing grants to support
Newspaper in Education programs, contact
the New Jersey Press Foundation at
(609) 406-0600, ext. 19, or send an
E-mail to foundationprograms@njpa.org .
Suggested
Letter to Donors from Newspapers
Introductory
paragraphs written by the NIE Coordinator
would ask companies to sponsor classroom
sets of newspapers or support the paper's
overall NIE program.
As an option to making
your check payable to the (name of the
newspaper), the New Jersey Press
Foundation, a 501(c)3 organization, has
agreed to receive your check and to
purchase a classroom set of the (name
of the newspaper) (or any other
general NIE effort at the paper) in the
name of your company.
This option is possible
because the (name of the newspaper)
is a member of the foundation's
statewide Newspaper in Education and Youth Readership
Committee.
Your check, made
payable to the New Jersey Press
Foundation, could be tax-deductible.
However, we suggest that you consult with
your tax adviser about this way of
supporting the NIE program at (name of
the newspaper).
If you choose to make your check
payable to the New Jersey Press Foundation, you may mail
it directly to NJPF at: 810 Bear Tavern Road, Suite 307,
West Trenton, N.J. 0868-1019. If you have questions
about the foundation or need its tax-identification
information, contact the foundation's program director
at (609) 406-0600, ext. 19, or send an E-mail to:
foundationprograms@njpa.org.
Closing paragraphs
by the NIE Coordinator.
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