Grandson wins PTA poetry contest

Jerrod Thomas, grandson of the late “Chet” Thomas and Cynthia (Thomas) Doyle, won a state PTA writing contest. Jerrod is a fifth grader at Roesland’s Elementary. Next month, Jerrod, and his parents, Stephanie and Ed Thomas, will eat dinner with Gov Bill Graves at the governor’s mansion in Topeka as part of his honor for winning the contest.

Jerrod’s poem, “My Most Valuable Freedom,” took three weeks to research and write. It was his first effort at a poem, though he had been writing short stories since he was five.

Jerrod’s poem won first place out of poems submitted by fifth-and-sixth-graders in the Shawnee Mission School District. His poem also surpassed poems in the region, including the Blue Valley, Olathe and De Soto districts. His poem has since been sent to the national level.