Come take a seat and it's time for the awards ceremony.

Yay!

Thank you all for being here.

I think this is the biggest turnout we've ever had for this event.

So let's raise a big cheer for that.

That's awesome.

Well, I hope everyone's having a great time so far.

For those of you who are tuning in at home, let me fill you in on some of the activities we have going on in Midtown today.

We had story time with the mayor's summer reading book.

We had a music making station, free King of Pop's, who had a King of Pop's.

Amazing.

Yeah, wonderful.

Probably the favorite station of the day.

We have gotcha go games.

We had just dance.

And then, of course, our students, our winning students have been recording their voiceovers in our NPR radio booths.

And all of you have already recorded, which I think is also a first for this event.

That's awesome.

Congratulations.

And we wanted to give a big shout out to the Georgia State Masters in creative and innovative Education students for providing all of those activities today.

So thanks to them, I think they were also the judging panel for the for the writers contest.

So thank you guys for being great partners for this event.

Um, I think to start us off here today, I'd like to define a special term.

I figured that some of you guys might like vocabulary.

Is that true?

So storytelling can be defined as the interactive art and practice of using words, visuals, or actions to share narratives.

It is used to entertain, to educate, to preserve culture and instill moral values.

So by connecting facts to emotions, we can create memorable experiences.

For over 55 years, PBS has provided free educational programing and engagement opportunities to American communities.

This specific competition, the writer's contest, started all the way back in 1995 with a little show that some of you might or might not be familiar with.

Have you ever heard of Reading Rainbow?

Yeah, right.

That's a pretty popular one.

Um, so the PBS KIDS Writers Contest was founded on the mission of building a lifelong love of reading.

And as the PBS station of Georgia GPB is incredibly proud to continue this legacy and celebrate early literacy with you all.

Our mission is to unite and uplift Georgians, and I can't think of any better way to bring smiles to faces of all ages than by listening to a child share their own story in their own voice, with their own incredible illustrations.

So for those great efforts, we have some very exciting prize bags for everyone today.

Every winner will receive a prize bag filled with PBS kids swag, a GPB notebook to keep your story ideas in your very own gosh, from gosh ago world.

Uh gosh ago world is our computational thinking game for kids 3-8 years old.

Is anyone three or 3-8 years old in here?

Right.

I think a lot of you.

Wonderful.

So parents you can play gosh, ago at gpb.org slash ago, but it's also available as an app.

Uh, so in the App store or Google Play, but now let's get started.

When you hear your name, please come up to the stage.

You'll receive your award right here from our VP of education, Laura Evans.

And then you can head right this way.

We'll receive your prize bag and you can take a photo here on the red carpet.

And then you can head back to your seats.

And then once we're all done with this award ceremony, we're all going to head over to the red carpet and take some group photos.

Does that sound good?

Awesome.

So let's get started with our kindergarten winners.

Okay, in third place for kindergarten with the story Lily's Snow Day, it's Reagan Wood.

For Reagan.

Next up in the kindergarten category in second place with the story The Christmas Princess, who helped the community.

It's Prisha Rowan.

Come on.

Congratulations.

And in first place, with the story, Violet's cartwheels.

It's Harper K. One more round of applause for all our kindergarten winners.

Next up, we're going to move on to first grade in third place with the story Stella and Shu.

It's Naomi Jong.

Yay!

I love everyone's pretty dresses and everything today too.

Yay!

Let's go on to second place in first grade.

It's Elizabeth Ava B. And her story was The Fairy without friends.

Congratulations.

All right.

And in first place for first grade with the story, The Cheese Whiz, it's Greta Dexter.

Now we're moving on to second grade in third place for second grade.

The big snow was her story.

Annie Atchison.

Good job.

And in second place for second grade with the story The Adventures of Rabbit and Fox.

Fox invasion.

It's Dylan Beswick.

Big jump.

And in first place for second grade with the story The Slow Snail.

Blake Stephens.

Good job.

For third grade.

In third place, we have Manvi Prakash with Leo.

The lion faces his fears.

Congratulations.

And one beat wants to say a little message.

You can use this mic.

Uh, my name is Manvitha Prakash and I'd like to, thank my family.

My teacher and my principal, Mrs.

Cindy Kinney from Blacksmith Elementary.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Thank you for that message.

In second place for third grade, Sharon Lee with the story of the flower.

And in first place for.

Oh, no.

In first place for third grade with the story, the Imaginary Zoo Moshi Uzoho.

Congratulations to all of our winners.

Thank you all for being here and a special thank you to all of the parents and the caregivers, all of the teachers for supporting your children's interest in writing.

Thank you again to the Georgia State Masters in Creative and Innovative Education Students for providing all of our activities and from all of us here at GPB, we really hope you've enjoyed your experience today.

If there's anything you've heard about or you want to learn more about, please come up and chat with any of us.

Um, to all of our young writers, I hope this experience is just a small reminder to continue exploring your imagination, dreaming big, and to never stop reading, writing, and sharing stories.

All of the winning stories will be posted on gpb.org slash writers later this season.

And now we'll have everyone gather over here at the red carpet and take some group photos.

Thank you.

Great job you.

How's due to come back now?

Maybe, but we don't even know where he is.

Well, we do know the last box he delivered was to Ollie's house.

That's not too far from here.

So maybe still could be nearby.

Trying to figure out what to do next.

I have an idea.

Hey, Stu.

Lila, honey.

Come inside.

It's freezing out here.

Mom, we have to give Stu new instructions to come home.

Hey, Stu.

Come.