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 I-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 Visits the Fire Department” where students were asked to write a story about Fair Bear's day as a firefighter.  Fair Bear was so excited to find out that he was able to visit his local fire department and spend a day in the life of a firefighter since this is something that he has always wanted to do! Students were to write about his experience and the exciting things that he learned from the firefighters as well as what he did during a typical day as a firefighter.  

Simeon Sturrup from fifth grade and Khloe Barrow 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.