5-20-15 Collaboration benefits non-profits just as it does for-profit businesses

For several years the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts (NILA) has encouraged and recognized writing talent among Whidbey Island students through its Celebrate Writing Contest. This year, the contest was done as a collaboration between NILA and the Whidbey Children’s Theater (WCT). The contest was open to children in the 3^rd through 8^th grades who are students at any of the schools on Whidbey.

As a Board member of WCT, I played a small role helping with the tabulation and coordinating the involvement of WCT. One of my tasks was to call each of the families whose child was a winner, and because there were so many excellent entries, we had several who scored high enough to win a first, second or third prize. Each call I made produced the same result: An excited parent and a thrilled child.

All of those who won a prize have been invited to read their entry at an event to be held at the Whidbey Children’s Theater on Saturday, May 30^th at 7 p.m. These winners have also been invited to come early for a tour of the theater by two of our directors and to receive some group coaching on presenting their piece.

Most who didn’t receive a prize did writing projects that showed a high level of commitment to doing something of value. The scoring was very close and it was challenging figuring where to draw the winner/non-winner line.

Both organizations benefited by sharing the responsibilities. But, the real winner in this is our community, sharing the efforts of two great non-profit organizations doing something of significant value.

I hope you’ll come to hear the children read their works on Saturday, May 30th at 7 p.m.

Here is more about the contest and the winners:

http://wiwa.nila.edu/Celebrate-Writing-Contest-Winners-2015