The United States Federal Bureau of Prisons and the Correctional Service of Canada have sponsored an International Poster Contest in conjunction with the Literacy 2000 Symposium in Ottawa which took place April 31 through May 3rd, 2000. The contest was open to all incarcerated individuals in Canada, United States, England and Australia. The contestants were asked to write a text based on a selected poster with the topic, "In the Outlook of the New Millennium, what vision of literacy does the contest poster inspire in you?" The poster contest ran from October 15, 1999 to March 1st, 2000. It was divided into four categories ranging from ABE 1 to post secondary levels of education. Three winners in each of the four categories as well as an overall grand prize winner were announced at the Literacy Conference. The prizes offered consisted of monies for the top three winners in each category as well as a grand prize winner. In order to encourage various correctional institutions to promote the contest some corporate prizes were reserved for the institutions where the winners are incarcerated.

The Canadian part of the contest was divided into five regions and a coordinator was named for each area. The coordinator was responsible for sending the poster information and submission rules to the various institutions in the region. As a teacher and the coordinator for the Prairie Region at the Hilltop Education Centre, Drumheller Institution, the school there became the focal point for the reception of the entries from across the region; Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. Sixty-five entries. Ranging across all four categories, were received from the various participating institutions. A judging panel was struck and spent many hours deliberating over the various entries to select the top five entries in each category. It was a difficult task for the five members of the judging panel to decide who the top five finalists should be. A lot of time and energy was invested in the essays and it is always difficult to weigh words that are heartfelt into numbers for excellency. The top five selections were forwarded to the central committee in Ottawa for further consideration.

A decision was made to share these essays with all contestants in the regions by publishing a book of all the submissions in the Prairie Region and then distributing them to the participating institutions. The top five selections were noted in each category and the rest of the entries will be published in alphabetical order. The books were printed at the printing shop in Drumheller Institution, which also involved the efforts of the students employed there.

And, Among The Winners Were…
1st to 5th grade - Myron Appleharth, Grande Cache Institution, Canada, Troy Dancey, Drumheller Institution, Canada and Léon Vermette, Rockwood Institution, Canada; 6th to 10th grade - Félix Kouadio, Établissement Cowansville, Canada, Shaobo Wang, People's Republic of China and Kevin Saunders, Portland Institution, UK; 11th and 12th grade - Yingqiao Luo, People's Republic of China, Gervais Gauthier, Detention Center of Chicoutimi, Canada and Kathy Rondeau, Alderson Federal Prison for women, USA; post-secondary studies - Edwin Carpenter, Yankton Institution, USA, Peter Jennings, La Macaza Institution, Canada and Wenyue Shou, People's Republic of China; Grand Prize, all categories Youju Zong, Number Three Correctional Facility, China.

Linda George, Prairie Region Coordinator for the International Poster Contest