📚✨ A Huge THANK YOU to all the students, teachers, parents, and school administrators who supported our Poetry & Essay Contest this year! We’re thrilled to share that we received a record-breaking 380+ entries! 🎉 Your creativity and enthusiasm continue to inspire us every year!

Looks like we’ve got our work cut out for us! 😅 We might need to call in a few more readers to help us enjoy all these wonderful submissions. Stay tuned for updates and results soon! 🏆📝

We had an amazing time celebrating at our 38th Annual Poetry & Essay Awards Night! With so many incredible submissions, our judges had their work cut out for them—especially with the hilariously heartwarming topic, “What happened to you that still makes you laugh when you remember it?”

The winning students blew us away as they read their essays and poems to a full house of families, teachers, school administrators, and our members. A big congratulations to all our talented winners: Victoria, Arjun, Leah, Anshi, Michelle, Lucy, Tyler, George, Jackson and Vihaan!

Want to read the winning entries? For a limited time only, they’ll be on display at our library—don’t miss out!

At our December 5th meeting we honored the winners of our 37th annual Poetry and Essay Contest. Thirteen students from grades 2 through 8 were invited to read their winning entries to an audience of club members, family members, school administrators and teachers. The Winners and Honorable Mention recipients were chosen from a field of over 200 entries. Our club is so proud of all the writers who entered in response to our topic:

What food brings up special memories for you? Tell us what that special food is, and where you were when you ate it for the first time. Was it a special occasion or an ordinary day? Does it make you remember a person or a place? Have you eaten that food since? Use your best writing strategies to make the special taste come alive for your readers.

Congratulations to the winners pictured below with Club President Alexandra Asteris, School Superintendent, Brad Siegel, and and Principals and teachers.

All students in grades 1 through 8 in Reynolds, Bogert, and Cavallini Schools are eligible to participate in our 36th Annual Essay and Poetry Contest. The topic this year is one for a personal narrative to sync with the units currently being taught. Writing will take place in October. Students, be sure to send us your thoughts on the topic below by the October 28th deadline! Your entry may be a winner! Check out contest rules on the Contest Tab (above on the blue banner on this website)––or in the email you received from the school.

When Was The Last Time You Did Something That Scared Or Challenged You?

Be sure to tell us your story in vivid detail so we’ll feel like we are “right there with you” at the moment you have chosen to share. Did you learn something about yourself at that moment? Use your best writing strategies to make your entry as strong as it can be.

All students in grades 1 through 8 in Reynolds, Bogert, and Cavallini Schools are eligible to participate in our 35th Annual Essay and Poetry Contest. The topic this year is one to reflect on the recently completed Be Kind 21 initiative in the schols. Students, be sure to send us your thoughts on the topic below by the November 19th deadline! Your entry may be a winner! Check out contest rules on the Contest Tab (above on the blue banner on this website)––or in the email you received from the school.

BeKind21

Our school and our town just completed BeKind21.

What was one thing you did to be kind to another person? Did it affect you too?

What was something kind that someone did for you? How did it make your day better?

21 days are only a small fraction of the 365 days in a year. Do you think you could keep doing a kind thing for someone each day? Why might it be important?

Thursday evening, March 5th marked the Awards Ceremony for our 34th annual Poetry and Essay contest. Because this year’s topic commemorated the 125th anniversary of the incorporation of Upper Saddle River as a Borough, our Mayor and Council graciously allowed us to award the children at their March Council meeting.

Winners read their winning entries, and Mayor Minichetti presented the awards. The topic concerned what might be placed in a time capsule to show future residents what is special about our town in 2020.

Club President, Nona Maher, surprised the students with the news that there would actually be a time capsule! It will contain the winning entries, photos of the places and things the students mentioned in their writing, a letter from the Woman’s Club, logos of the organizations in town and the historical and current maps of the town. The time capsule will be stored at the Hopper-Goetschius House Museum on the corner of Lake Street and East Saddle River Road for opening in the year 2145.

Congratulations to all the winners!