Underwriting support from:
/Renato Delos Reyes
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The Cook Arts Center, working with The Rapidian, is recruiting community journalists who will represent the southwest district of Grand Rapids through the Write It to Win It contest. The contest launched Thursday, March 28. Registration for the contest is open to all residents of the Roosevelt Park neighborhood that comprises The Rapidian's GAAH Bureau.
"This is a great opportunity for the adults to take a more active role in what is happening around their neighborhood and give them a chance to share their voice," says Alaina Clarke, intern at Cook Arts Center. Due to the large number of kids who currently partake in the press club that is run through the Cook Arts Center and The Creative Youth Center, many of the adults in the neighborhood are already familiar with The Rapidian. The initiative will help adult residents learn how to utilize the platform themselves.
During the registration period, the Cook Arts Center staff and The Rapidian will be hosting multiple training sessions for participants to instruct them on how to use The Rapidian's website as well as help and support the article-writing process. After the registration period closes on April 12, participants will have a couple weeks to work on their articles. The only requirement for article submission is that the article be written about something occurring in the Roosevelt Park neighborhood that the contestant sees as newsworthy and should be shared with the public.
"I am looking forward to reading about what is going on in the Roosevelt Neighborhood and see how it opens doors for others to get involved in different capacities," says Clarke.
The contest aspect of this writing initiative comes into play as soon as the articles are published. The winner of the contest will be determined by how many social media interactions each article receives. These include article comments, Facebook "likes" and "shares," Twitter "tweets" and other such interactions that will be credited to the article as "votes." As soon as a contestant finishes their article, they are able to publish it and start racking up votes for their story.
The contest and voting period ends May 5. Winner and runners up will be announced on The Rapidian the following day, May 6.
Keep an eye out for articles published through the Write It to Win It contest and help out the journalist whose article you like best by sharing their story!
The Rapidian, a program of the 501(c)3 nonprofit Community Media Center, relies on the community’s support to help cover the cost of training reporters and publishing content.
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