Ravenna -“Inspiring and compelling afternoon”…. “I enjoyed the workshops immensely!”….. “Downtown Ravenna is beautiful”…. “We will definitely come again”, “Please bring more events downtown like this!”. These are just a few of the comments received from attendees and presenters who participated in the Main Street Ravenna First Annual Winter Writing Festival on February 23.
In conjunction with the Northeast Ohio Writing Center Association Conference being held at Ravenna High School the same day, close to 300 participants from all over NE Ohio came together to experience twenty different workshops focusing on different types of writing, poetry and publishing for children through adults in the downtown Main Street Ravenna district. In addition, NEOWCA also invited eight Ravenna City School teachers to participate in their conference for free as professional development to further enhance educators knowledge in order to advance writing skills in the Ravenna district.
Main Street Ravenna and the Ravenna City Schools also partnered on a writing contest for students in grades K-12 which attracted 155 entries. The top 3 winners per grade level of the writing contest will be published in an anthology as prizes in addition to being for sale to the public. The school contest winners include: William Bryant, Emma Wunderle, Andelyn Walton, Maria Abbassi, Aubree Boneham, Clare Johnson, Michaela Marcella, Rihanna Miracle-Fox, Adelina Wunderle, Hannah Clark, and Emma Cannon. The adult community contest winners are: Sandra Alger, Nancy Drugan Koehler and Sheryl Dickerhoof.
The workshops were held downtown in several different locations including Reed Memorial Library, Bean and the Baker, Tavern 1888, Moksha Yoga and the West Main Street Winery. They featured a number of teachers, professors and published authors who brought their experience and expertise to Ravenna. A pop-up book shop featuring The Learned Owl Bookstore, capped off other activities which included Instagram contests around town in locations such as Ravenna 7, Don Basch Jewelers, Icy Blast and Reed Memorial Library.The Wick Poetry Center from KSU also visited to discuss their River Stanza project. Poetry Readings with the Ohio Poetry Association were a hit as well. Many attendees walked between venues and enjoyed the days weather in addition to visiting other merchants open for business.
Sponsored in part by Shorts-Spicer-Crislip Funeral Home of Ravenna, Eric Schlaubach State Farm Insurance, Ravenna City Schools, Mike Tontimonia, David Dix and Bill Barber, The Winter Writing Festival succeeded in promoting Ravenna as a growing cultural destination and is just one of the newest events and initiatives Main Street Ravenna will be working on this year.
Main Street Ravenna is a 501(c)3 organization, an official Heritage Ohio Main Street community whose mission is to “celebrate and utilize downtown Ravenna, where businesses thrive and people create moments together”. If you like what you see and want to be involved either as a volunteer at an event or on a committee, contact the Main Street Ravenna office at 330-235-9509.
