Summer is here at last and while the UBPN Board of Directors is very busy planning for Camp over Labor Day Weekend, we are also beginning to think about Awareness Week, which this year will be October 12-18. Last year for Awareness, we held an art competition for the children. This year we would like to focus our creativity on poetry and announce a poetry competition that will be open to all ages. The description and guidelines are as follows:

Poetry is an avenue for expressing emotion through words and can be a very healthy outlet for feelings that might otherwise be difficult to articulate. This contest is open to budding poets of all age groups.

Submit your poem before August 1 to be considered. Winning entries will have their poems published in the Awareness Issue of Outreach. Judges for the contest will be a team of humanities faculty at Kent State University.

Contest Guidelines:

1. The competition is open to all in the bpi community.
2. Poems can be on any theme that relates to living with a brachial plexus injury
3. All entries must be original and unpublished.
4. There is no limit to the number of entries that can be submitted by any entrant
5. The poem should not be more than 100 lines long.
6. The poet's name should not appear on the poem. (this will allow us to judge fairly without knowing the name of the entrant)
7. A cover sheet should be included that lists the poet's name, address, telephone number or email, age of the poet, and the title of the poem submitted.
8. Depending upon the number of entries and the age groups represented, winning poems will be selected in a variety of age groups.

Please mail submissions to:

UBPN, 1610 Kent St., Kent, OH 44240

I look forward to reading your poetry!

Best wishes,

Nancy Birk, President
UBPN, Inc.