Union’s 2015 Writing Contest Offers Cash Prizes to High School Students
The Union has announced that the 2015 writing contest for high school students is now underway. This competition is beginning at an earlier time of the year than it has in the past, and that’s because it also has an earlier deadline. The deadline for submitting entries to the 2015 writing competition is Friday, June 19. No entries will be accepted after that date.
As most members are aware by now, the writing contest has become one of the most eagerly anticipated events on the Union’s annual calendar. That’s because it gives members’ children who are high school students an excellent opportunity to show their skills and win prize money at the same time. Quite a few previous writing contest winners said they enjoyed the challenge and the competition that the contest presents to them. We hope this year’s crop of students feels the same.
The 2015 writing contest is open to all children and eligible dependents of Hotel Trades Council and Local 6 members. Students must be in grades 10, 11 or 12 at the time of entering the competition.
Cash prizes will be awarded to three winners—first, second and third place—in each of the contest’s three categories, and honorable mention cash prizes may also be awarded. Some of the winning entries or excerpts from them may be published in Hotel Voice and on the Laborarts.org website.
Like its predecessors, this year’s contest promises to bring in some fine poems, essays and narratives. Rules and entry procedures for the 2015 contest appear in this edition of Hotel Voice. Students will also find some suggested topics to consider.
The annual writing contest is now 13 years old. It was started in 2003 as a one-time special event to see how members’ children would respond to an invitation to submit samples of their writing to compete for cash prizes. The response that year was overwhelming and, as a result, the writing competition is now an annual event, one that repeatedly demonstrates the great amount of talent and creativity that exists in our Union’s family. Each year, the outstanding quality of so many entries makes everyone associated with the contest very proud. We expect that this year will be no different.
The 2015 competition will offer cash prizes— $2,000 for first place, $1,000 for second and $300 for third—in three different categories: Essay, Poetry and Fiction/non-fiction Narrative. One of the category winners will be selected as best overall entry and will receive an additional $1,000—for a total top prize of $3,000. If past competitions are any indication, it would not be unusual if a number of honorable mention prizes of $250 are also awarded this year.
Since the competition began 13 years ago, the prize money has been provided by the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation. An impartial committee of judges will determine the winners.
As many members know from the previous contests, Donald Rubin is the son of Jay Rubin, the first President of the Hotel Trades Council. The Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation supports the writing contest with goals of promoting creativity among the children of members of our Union and reinforcing and expanding its essential mission to fund innovative efforts to empower individuals to develop their full potential. Since its inception, the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation has supported efforts to make society more responsive to progressive ideas and to promote activities of grass roots organizations including unions. The Union’s writing contest is part of the Foundation’s effort to accomplish these goals.
Previous writing contests have revealed that the goals of the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation are clearly being achieved. The contest’s judges—and Hotel Voice readers, too—have been very impressed by the talent, intelligence and creativity displayed by students who submitted entries in the previous contests.
Students in grades 10-12 who are children of Hotel Trades Council or Local 6 members may submit entries in one, two or all three categories in the competition, but no more than one entry in each category. Also, each category must have submissions from a minimum of ten students in order for the prize money to be awarded.
“Each year this contest validates the fact that our children’s members are bright, resourceful and creative,” Hotel Trades Council President Peter Ward said this week. “We express our sincere appreciation to Donald Rubin and the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation for funding this competition each year and we urge parents to tell their children about it.”
“My wife and I are very pleased to continue sponsoring this competition through the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation,” said Donald Rubin, the son of Jay Rubin, who served as Hotel Trades Council President from 1938 to 1978. “We strongly believe in the union movement and its members. In addition, we hope that this competition serves as a good way to remember my father’s own dedication to organized labor and his decades of service to the Hotel Trades Council and Local 6.”
It is easy for students to enter the contest. An explanation of the contest’s categories and entry procedures is printed on page 3 of this edition of Hotel Voice. As a reminder, some of the essays, poems and narratives—or excerpts from them—may be published in Hotel Voice and at the laborarts.org website. We wish the best of luck to all students who enter the writing competition and we remind all that the deadline for submitting entries to the contest is earlier than in previous years. The deadline for entries to this year’s writing contest is Friday, June 19, 2015.
Here is last year’s grand prize winner in the Union’s Writing Contest, Mahzabin Hasnath, seen here with her father, Abu Hasnath, an employee of the Millennium UN Plaza.
Here are last year’s writing contest winners.
