Two Aspen Elementary School students win 22nd annual Fraser Creative Writing Contest

Students at Aspen Elementary School recently participated in the 22nd annual Fraser Creative Writing Contest.

The awards ceremony, which took place March 29 at the Aspen District Theater, highlighted works submitted by Aspen third and fourth graders.

Third grade students, writing for the theme “animals,” submitted 43 entries. This included 11 honorable mentions and seven golden honorable mentions (with two special awards for word choice and creativity categories). There were also four third-place winners and two second-place winners.

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And first place went to Aspen third grader Samuel Ward.

Fourth grade students, writing for the theme “migration,” submitted 33 entries. This includes four honorable mentions and six golden honorable mentions (with two special awards for word choice and creativity categories). There were also five third-place winners and four second-place winners.

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First place went to Aspen fourth grader Noah Kessler.

Here are the winning stories from Ward and Kessler:

Editor’s note: This content is preserved in its original form.

Nyiro and Tank’s Journey

By Samuel Ward, third grade

Crash. Bam

“Evacuate!” 

“The whole Kalahari desert is burning,” Nyiro exclaims. 

Twenty Days Earlier

The whole desert smelled like fresh leaves and summer rain. In one part of the desert, there was a leopard family. They live in a Burkea Africana tree next to a leaf shaped pond with more burkea africana trees surrounding it. Every morning a group of zebras comes south to take a drink. On the other side of the pond lives a lion family of 12 one of those lions Tank is best friends with Nyiro. 

Sadly, they can’t visit each other because a family of hyenas try to attach the young cubs. Sometimes they can sneak through the hyenas to hang out. 

Nyiro and Tank met when they were  both going on there first wander with there parents they were both wandering around each other smelling all the fresh summer smells like the fresh leaves. They were ten feet away when they finally noticed each other and jumped back. They didn’t know each other. The parents got distracted by a heard of Cape Buffalo and then the parents started chasing the buffalo and left the kids. The kids started conversating and exchanging names and favorite foods. Once the parents stopped chasing the buffalo they came back to the two kids without  knowing Nyiro and Tank were friends. 

Twelve Days Later

Nyiro and Tank snuck past the hyenas to meet at the far side of the pond with the zebras. They went on many adventures. They went out to watch a herd of cape buffalos. They went out to the big pond to watch the crocodiles. They went to the pond that was next to both of their homes to watch the zebras. Sometimes they went on hunts together. All of their time together made them very close friends. 

Seven Days Later

Nyiro and Tank went to go hang out and on the way there Nyiro spotted something glimmering in the distance. So he wandered over to Tank and told him about what he saw. They were both too scared to go closer towards it. Nyiro and Tank both went back to their homes to sleep for the night. 

Crash. Bam. 

“Evacuate!” 

“The whole Kalahari desert is burning,” Nyiro exclaims. “The glimmering light must have been a fire.” 

They were trying to splash water on the fire from the pond. After two days of trying that, they gave up because no water was coming. They assumed they would just have to wait till rain. In the next two days, so many trees had fallen over and most were still burning. 

Finally, rain started falling and almost the whole desert started cheering. Three days later, the rain had finally put the fire out. Nyiro and Tank kept doing their daily routine by meeting each other across the pond. Even though most of the trees burned in the desert, Nyiro’s tree did not burn and he still had his home. 

“My parents went out to find a new den by looking for thick grass, deep thickets, heavy riverside grass, and rock outcroppings. My den collapsed,” said Tank.

“Oh, sorry! I hope you find a new den like your old one,” exclaims Nyiro. 

Six Years Later

Nyiro and Tank both went out their own ways to make a family for themselves and find new homes. 

Three months later Nyiro and Tank both had found mates and had cubs. They both lived happily ever after. 

The quatro amigos

By Noah Kessler, fourth grade

In the Gulf of Papua in Australia, there was a spiny lobster named Caspian, he lived with his family in a beautiful coral reef. Caspian was a reddish-orange lobster with no claws, two big antennae, a floppy tail and six legs. Caspian used his free time to ride his submarine across the seas and other times he enjoyed reading some comic books. One unexpected afternoon while Caspian was enjoying the beautiful sea life, he saw strong winds and powerful rain coming towards the coral reef and ran towards home as fast as he was able. The strong rain and one thousand mile winds quickly formed into a hurricane and in less than two hours, the entire city of Papua was torn down and even the trees with the deepest roots were destroyed. The destruction blasted all of the memory Caspian had from the town where he grew up, forcing him, his family and their friends to migrate far away from their home. The reddish-orange lobster started the journey with his family in search of their new home, alongside friends that had also lost their home in Papua due to the hurricane. Along the way, they were faced with a strong current, the Eastern Australian current (EAC) that separated Caspian from his family and friends. After the current calmed down, Caspian was alone and he felt sad and afraid and was not sure what to do and started crying. Just as the current calmed down, Caspian did as well and had an idea. He decided he would continue his journey alone.

On his way to find his family and his new home, the lobster encountered a magnetic field. The force created by the magnetic field helped him find the coordinates to Slow Sand Beach, a place he had heard in a conversation between his family and friends considering it to be their new home, since that part of the sea was safe from hurricanes. Caspian felt tired and hungry, after having walked 856 yards, or at least he felt he had walked that much and thought he was about halfway there. Very soon, the day would turn into night and Caspian needed to find a place to rest, and in no time, he was drifting off into a dreamlike state. In the morning Caspian was well rested and ready to continue his journey. Off he went, headed towards a rocky mountain with a narrow bridge. Suddenly, two octopuses jumped in front of him, their names were Ocho and Siete. Siete had lost a tentacle when he was younger during a fight with a shark. Ocho, the eight-legged octopus said, this is my bridge and I am not letting anybody across it without the secret code. The reddish-orange lobster was confused as he was not aware of any secret code and had no idea how to continue his journey if he was unable to cross to the other side. He asked Ocho, can you help me figure out the secret code by giving me a clue? Ocho replied, what is the most important thing about family? Caspian knew the exact answer to the question and quickly replied, love, support and security. “You nailed it”, replied Ocho. He also asked Caspian what he was doing around that area all by himself. The lobster told the octopuses all about the hurricane and the current that had separated him from his family and friends. They both gasped and felt sad emotions inside. Both Ocho and Siete asked Caspian if they could tag along, as they were all alone and had no other friends or family, Caspian immediately said yes. The three amigos continued the journey alongside each other. Along the way, they passed a quiet town and it looked like it had also been destroyed by a hurricane. Suddenly, Caspian saw something move in between two rocks. The octopuses saw it too, they all got afraid as they were unsure what it could be. The mysterious sea life kept getting closer and closer, and eventually, a Moray eel jumped off the shadows and said. “What are you doing here?” “We were just passing by, we are on our way to Slow Sand”, replied Siete. Caspian asked Moray, “why are you here all by yourself?” Moray replied that he used to live there with his family, but everything was destroyed due to the hurricane that had hit that area just a few days ago. Caspian invited Moray the eel to join the three amigos on their journey. The eel looked up and said “yes, my name is Flash”. From that day on, they were no longer only the three amigos, but four amigos searching for their new home while exploring the seas. After many days and many adventures together, the four amigos finally arrived at Slow Sand Beach, where the rest of Caspian’s family and friends were anxiously awaiting his arrival.

The End.