Each year, Thomas County students in fourth, fifth, and sixth grade participate in the Georgia National Fair's Fair Bear Writing Competition.  Students compete at the school level, and first place winners from each grade compete at the state level.    

The annual competition asks students to write a story about an American black bear who lived from 1980-1993 in Middle Georgia near the Georgia National Fairgrounds.  The bear’s path often involved crossing 1-75 where it met its tragic death in 1993.  It was immortalized as the Georgia National Fair’s mascot and has been the subject of their writing competition since 1994.

This year’s topic was “Fair Bear Plants a Garden” where students were asked to write a story describing Fair Bear's experience of visiting the new Starbuck Learning Farm at the Georgia National Fair.  This experience gave Fair Bear the inspiration to plant his own garden for his family and to help out in the community by not only growing enough food for his family, but extra food that he donates to the local food bank. Students were to describe Fair Bear's experience and inspiration gained while visiting the fair and the Starbuck Learning Farm, fruits and vegetables he plants in his garden, along with his food bank donation efforts, and the success of the overall experience.

Addilynn Shealey from fifth grade and Terrance Bostick from sixth grade are the school winners and will compete at the state competition at the end of March.  State-level winners will be announced in April, 2022.

To further this narrative writing experience, sixth-grade students in Stephanie Papka's ELA class also have a Fair Bear Drawing Contest that relates to each year's theme. The students drew their interpretations of the theme and related their drawings to the narratives that they wrote. 

Pictured are fifth and sixth-grade winners of the creative writing competition, Addilyn Shealey and Terrance Bostick, and the finalists of the Fair Bear Drawing Contest.