Local Student Named Winner in National Writing Contest
(From left to right) Largo Mayor Patricia Gerard, Saint Paul’s School Principal Dr. Angel Kytle and Olive Garden General Manager Maria Black honored Sebastien Rhodes (second from left) for winning the sixth-grade category of Pasta Tales, a national essay writing contest sponsored by the Olive Garden. St. PETERSBURG - Sebastien Rhodes, of Largo, was named a winner in Olive Garden's 13th-annual Pasta Tales essay writing contest. Olive Garden asked students in first through 12th-grade "How would you use the Internet to change your community for the better?" A student at Saint Paul's School in Clearwater, Rhodes wrote an essay about his idea to create a recycling Web page for his community. A winner was announced in each of 12 grade categories and Rhodes' essay was selected by judges as the best written by a sixth-grader. Rhodes, along with the other winners, receives a $500 savings bond and dinner with his family at their local Olive Garden. According to judges, Rhodes writes a detailed essay that "expresses his belief that this Web site would help the community boost its recycling efforts." Rhodes wrote, "My idea would be to create a Web page for the local community that highlighted all key drop-off areas for specific recycling efforts. The Web page would also provide a map and tag the categories of recycling with color-coding as well as the hours of operation. ... I believe this would really help the community to increase its recycling efforts in all areas while providing an easy, one stop Web page to find the nearest locations for drop off." Olive Garden's Pasta Tales is designed to encourage young writers to express themselves and improve their writing skills. Entries were judged on creativity, adherence to theme, organization, grammar, punctuation and spelling by Olive Garden and the Quill and Scroll Society of the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Iowa.
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