The Grannie Annie Family Story Celebration, a nationwide non-profit based in St. Louis, encourages schoolchildren to collect and retell the stories of family members through the written word. Twelve years old, the organization recently released its 11th volume of those stories and is now accepting stories for its 12th volume.
Students from 10 states submitted stories. That’s around 800 young people, in grades four through eight, in total. This year, 36 of those stories were published in “The Grannie Annie Family Story Celebration 2015/2016, Volume 11. Twelve young artists also had their accompanying art pieces published.
“Our main emphasis is: finding a story, doing your best writing and sharing it,” said Connie McIntyre, the executive director of the organization, on St. Louis on the Air. “We’ve found that sharing leads to all sorts of great experiences.”
Three other guests joined host Don Marsh in studio to do just that: Fran Hamilton, the organization’s associate director, as well as Sophia Rose Kinninger, a sixth grade student whose submission is featured in the book, and her mother, Petra Swidler.
Kinninger wrote the story “The Precious Plum,” when she was in fifth grade.
“I love that I’m able to learn about my relatives,” Kinninger said. “I feel like these days kids don’t reach out to their relatives and time can just go by.”
Listen to Kinninger read her story as well as two other stories from the book here:
St. Louis on the Air brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. St. Louis on the Air host Don Marsh and producers Mary Edwards, Alex Heuer and Kelly Moffitt give you the information you need to make informed decisions and stay in touch with our diverse and vibrant St. Louis region.