Three-time winner Desiree Garcia (second from right) and other student winners at St. Lucy School celebrate with Frank Buono (back row).
The joys and challenges of being artists and historians, inventors and athletes, and equally as important— being the everyday person who makes a big difference in their community— were the kinds of personas that elementary and high school students took on as they created poems for Buono’s Authentic Pizzeria’s 11th Annual Cultural Poetry Contest.
Thousands of third through fifth and tenth graders from 17 Long Beach and San Pedro schools took on the challenge of writing poetry about the person they would most want to be in Italy’s rich history and culture.
After hundreds of poems were judged, Lily Katnic of Seventh Street School and Heaven Ocampo of Mary Star of the Sea High School earned the coveted Poet’s Choice Award in their grade categories. Ian Showler of South Shores Magnet earned the overall Kid’s Choice Award. Casey Nyguen of Holy Innocents Catholic School and Desiree Garcia of St. Lucy School of Long Beach took the second place spot in their grade categories for Poet’s and Kid’s Choice Awards respectively. In addition to being a champion poet, Garcia’s artwork appears as the cover design for the poetry booklet and she earned first place at her school for her poem entry.
The core of this year’s theme, “It’s a Carnevale,” comes from an Italian tradition whose roots are from the 11th century— fitting for Buono’s 11th anniversary of the contest. Carnevale is a festival throughout Italy in which attendees wear masks in part to celebrate the equality among people. In one town, the celebration includes “Battaglia delle Arance” during which people throw 400 tons of oranges. Other towns, such as along the Tuscany Coast, include giant allegorical papier-maché floats and medieval-like jousting tournaments take place.
“We felt the theme ‘Carnevale’ was important as students have a world of positive role models to draw from and they also have their own unique qualities to make our world a better place. Challenging the students to research the Italian heritage and also their own hopes and dreams proved to make for a very successful and special competition this year,” said Buono’s general manager/owner Frank Buono.
Numerous community volunteers with a zest for poetry helped judge all the entries and selected the top five at each school. Published poet and recently retired English professor Dr. Gerald Locklin served as the Poet’s Choice judge. “I can sense once again the enthusiasm that this competition engenders in the young entrants, and everyone who learns something more about the glories of Italian culture is truly a winner,” said Locklin.
The Kid’s Choice Award winners were selected by Blaire Smith, whose mother Leslie Smith, is credited with helping Buono’s develop the annual contest 11 years ago.
Artwork from fourth grader Annika Del Arenal of South Shores Magnet was selected to adorn the back cover of the booklet. Isaac Fernandez, whose artwork captured the essence of Michelangelo, was chosen to appear on page four of the booklet that is distributed throughout participating schools and to customers at the three area Buono’s restaurants.
“We are delighted this educational experience has brought so much joy to the children and their families.” said Buono.
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