Play Contest Winners!

We had lots of good entries for our 7th annual Puppet Play-Writing Contest.

Here, at last, is our announcement of the three winners.

Emma Kelsey, Andy Michalski and Darlene Farrey

The show we put together with their stories will be the very first performance, at

10 a.m. Saturday, May 19, to open Pup-A-Foo-Glee! -- our 2012 Day of Puppetry at the Hazel Green Opera House. Meet our winners. Ta da!

* Emma Kelsey, 9, of Dubuque, for "Learning While Camping." Emma's story features a boy camping on the banks of the Mississippi River, where he encounters Tilly Turtle and Dan Duck, who teach him a lesson about clean water.

Emma attends Eisenhower School. She enjoys acting in plays, reading, writing, playing piano, gymnastics and other sports.

* Andy Michalski, 14, of Ft. Atkinson, Wis., for "The Adventure." Andy's story is an action/adventure tale featuring an eagle named Darrel and a cat named Trey who get mixed up in a plot by the Federal Bureau of Investigative Animals.

Andy is an 8th grader at St. Joseph School in Ft. Atkinson. His most recent report card showed a GPA of 3.83.

*Darlene Farrey, of Galena, Ill., for "The Lead Foot Race" or "The Hare and the Tortoise Race Again." An effort to clean up the riverbank puts a new twist on the familiar Aesop's Fable.

Darlene is a grandmother, a lifelong resident of Galena, former teacher and the author of four self-published books.

Each winner will be honored at Pup-A-Foo-Glee! and will receive a commercially-made puppet as well as tickets to future shows at the opera house.