A crowd of 75 family, friends, and teachers attended an awards ceremony held at Eastlake High School on April 26 for the 2009 Poetry Contest.

The $1,000 Judges Choice Award, sponsored by the Redmond Rotary Club, went to Karla Cortes, a 10th grade student at Redmond High School, for her poem “I am from…”

David Berg, a 12th grade student at Redmond High School was the recipient of the Mark L. DiRe Scholarship Award of $500 for the poem “Shrouded Sands.”

Chelsea Leonard, a Redmond High School senior, was the winner of $500 scholarship funding for her poem “Things You Never Should Have Taught Me.”

Sara Radecke, of Eastlake High School has been awarded a prize of $500.00 for her poem, entitled “Split.”

Sarah Epstein, a senior from BEST High School is the recipient of $500.00 scholarship funding for her poem “Familiar Lullaby.”

Each of the finalists in the contest also received gift certificates from Park Place Books in Kirkland, or Soul Food Books in Redmond.