The power of the pen

Riverview

West Kildonan

Transcona

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/05/2024 (530 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two young Winnipeggers certainly have a way with words.

Habitat for Humanity recently held a national poetry contest, sponsored by Sagen, a private mortgage company, on the Meaning of Home. Students in Grade 5 and 6 across Canada were invited to submit poems on the theme and 2,834 submissions came from Manitoba alone. Each entry earned a $10 donation to their local Habitat for Humanity chapter, meaning $28,340 was raised locally to help fund building new homes for low-income, working Habitat partner families. Three winning entries earned a further $30,000 grant for local projects, while nine runners-up each earned $10,000 grants, along with a tablet and a class pizza party.

“We are so grateful to all the students that entered the Meaning of Home contest across the province and a big ‘thank you’ to the supportive teachers who encouraged them to take part,” Habitat Manitoba CEO Jamie Hall, said in a statement.

“The power of your writing directly impacts the number of Habitat Partner families we serve through the homeownership program. Congratulations to the local runner-up winners and the thousands of students who entered on raising $48,340 in total for Habitat Manitoba.”

Emily Jones, a Grade 5 student at École Riverview School, was one of the runners-up with her poem, Home.

“I was so excited, so excited,” Jones said. “We went for dinner and celebrated that night, which was really fun. But it was difficult to keep it from everyone. I wanted to tell my cousins and friends, but I could only tell my parents and my grandma.”

Jones’s poem opens with the lines “Home is a place with love and laughter/ Home is a place where you feel like you matter.”

Drawing on her own person experience, Jones empathizes with those who aren’t as fortunate to have homes of their own. She said the poem took her about a month to complete, and that she is thrilled to be able to help others through her writing.

“I really love how it’s something for me, but it’s also helping people have a home, somewhere to live…

“I really love how it’s something for me, but it’s also helping people have a home, somewhere to live,” Jones said, adding that when her extended family eventually found out about the prize, they also donated money to Habitat in her name.

“All the people in my class, all the people who did enter, all my friends had great poems that were worthy of winning, too,” Jones added.

Winter Wright, a Grade 6 student at École Seven Oaks Middle School, was the other local runner-up, with her poem, What home means to me.

“I’ve always had a special interest in writing,” Wright said. “My teacher, Miss Chin, came to me and said she’d seen this home poem contest, that it would be great for me to enter. I kind of thought instead of writing on the general idea, I could do it from my perspective. I felt, personally, a home wasn’t just a house, it’s a feeling of warmth and belonging. I felt I could bring my culture into it and speak a little about that.”

When she heard the news that she was one of the runners-up, Wright said she was overwhelmed.

“ I’m really proud of myself, because I feel my writing actually changed someone’s life…

“I started to cry,” she said.

“I feel very seen. I feel special, that my poem was chosen. I’m really proud of myself, because I feel my writing actually changed someone’s life, and that’s really crazy. I’m very grateful for my teacher, for getting me into this. And my family has been really supportive of my writing, as well. I’m very excited to get this opportunity.”

Money from the two runners-up prizes will go towards costs of construction on new Habitat homes south of Pandora Avenue in Transcona. For more information, visit meaningofhome.ca/page/winners2024