Winners from Vancouver, BC to Forteau, NL

Toronto, ON - Sixteen grade 5 and 6 students from the west to the east coast of Canada are now published authors, coming out tops in this year’s GMAC Great Canadian Writing Contest. Close to 1,900 students competed in the national, bilingual contest, made possible by founding sponsor General Motors Acceptance Corporation of Canada, Limited (GMAC) and managed by ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation. When the dust had cleared, one grade 6 student and four grade 5 students were judged regional winners, and 11 students were named first-place provincial and territorial winners.

To enter the contest, which ran from February 19 to April 25, 2007, grade 5 and 6 students submitted an original story of approximately 200 words, in English or French, based on the contest theme of family, along with an illustrated ‘book cover.’ The entries were judged for originality and creativity, storytelling and story flow, sentence structure, grammar and spelling. “We were overwhelmed by the imaginations of these young writers,” says Margaret Eaton, President of ABC CANADA. “They clearly rose to the creative challenge, and were guided as well by good interaction with their parents and teachers.”

Boundless creativity

The five regional winners’ stories, for example, involved a family dog telling a story about his place in the family; a heartwarming dedication to “heroes Mom and Dad”; a ‘fantasy’ on how a young boy is treated so royally by his family members that he thinks they are aliens; a sentimental visit to Grandma’s attic; and a beaver’s ambition to attend a dance.

Great prizes

Beyond their stories and illustrations being published, regional winners also receive a Sharp Electronic Dictionary PWE560, and their school, library or family literacy program receive a donation of $1,000 worth of books, courtesy of HarperCollinsCanada. The first-place winners, also published, receive the Sharp Electronic Dictionary along with a one-year subscription of OWL or J’aime Lire Magazine. Second- and third-place winners were also selected in some provinces and territories (a complete list is posted on www.gmacgreatcanadianwritingcontest.ca) and they receive a prize pack, containing a Tangled Tales game or Scene It - Nickelodeon Edition from Mattel Canada Ltd. and an autographed copy of Kenneth Oppel’s book Airborn from HarperCollinsCanada. (Mr. Oppel also participated, earlier in the year, in a special visit to Fielding Drive Public School in Ottawa, the recipients of an early-bird random draw, in support of the contest.) The storybooks were published courtesy of Toronto-based grafikom MIL.

Fostering literacy

This contest attests to GMAC’s commitment to fostering literacy. “The GMAC Great Canadian Writing Contest is designed to engage children in writing, while providing a fun and exciting activity that turns winning writers into published authors,” says Thomas E. Dickerson, President, GMAC.

Media contacts:

GMAC: Sarah Coronel, Marketing Communications Supervisor: 416-234-6322 or 1-800-599-8826, ext. 6322; sarah.coronel@gm.com

The GMAC Great Canadian Writing Contest is made possible due to founding sponsor General Motors Acceptance Corporation of Canada, Limited (GMAC) and is managed by ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation.

ABC CANADA acknowledges the generosity of our partners for 2007: Coast Paper; Dave Whamond/ Threeinabox.com; grafikom MIL; HarperCollinsCanada; J’aime Lire Magazine; Mattel Canada Ltd.; Maud Street Printing Services; Owlkids; and Sharp Electronics of Canada Ltd.

General Motors Acceptance Corporation of Canada, Limited (GMAC), is a subsidiary of GMAC LLC, a Delaware corporation. GMAC’s financing operations offer a wide range of financial services and products (directly and indirectly) to retail automotive consumers, and automotive dealerships. These products and services include the purchase of installment sales contracts and leases and extending floor plan and other lines of credit primarily to GM dealers. www.gmac.ca