UNION, NJ – St. Demetrios Greek School in Union won first place in the Panhellenic Literature Competition, the school’s principal, Katerina Makridaki-Rompos told The National Herald.

This is the 9th Panhellenic Student Literature Competition, which every year is titled Sofia Filntisi – The Tree of Wisdom. It is run by the Bougas Schools, and the competition is open to students of all grades in public and private schools in Greece, as well as Greek schools abroad.

“We are very happy and proud because once again our Greek school, which has been operating for 92 years, is distinguished in a Panhellenic Literature Competition.

“The theme of the ninth annual competition was Photographs of the mind-album of the mind, and the main judge was Manos Kontoleon, a famous Greek writer and was dedicated to the memory of the late Messinian author, Sofia Filntisi, who wrote many books, short stories, poetry and lyrics set to music by renowned composer Mimis Plessas. In 2004, she won the State Prize for Children's Literature for the book Poems for Children.

“The students were asked to write their own text that would convey a real or imaginary memory, their own or someone else's, as they remembered or imagined it.

“The 6th grade of our school, with me as teacher, wrote a text based on a fantastic story that the children jotted down when they were given verbal instruction and represented fantastic heroes and situations.

“The title of their story is: ‘Your Mom Said It Right: You Don't Listen’ and the children recounted an April Fool’s Day prank played on their school.

“We are the only school from the Greek Diaspora that participated in this competition. For the record, this is not the first time that the school of St. Demetrios won in a Panhellenic competition, as in 2016 the School Library was awarded as the best school library of a Greek school by the IBBY Children's Book Organization, and in 2017, the 5th grade of the school took 2nd place in the Panhellenic Children's Literature Competition,” the principal said.