Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 5, 1995 TAG: 9506060015
SECTION: NEWSFUN PAGE: NF-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ELIZABETH HOCK NEWSFUN EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
More than 700 NewsFun readers looked into their crystal balls to predict what life would be like in the year 2095. Their essays were submitted to NewsFun's annual writing contest in which readers were asked to write about life in 2095 in 200 words or less. Entries were judged by several staff members of the Roanoke Times & World-News.
The winner in the kindergarten-second-grade division is Drew Kahle, a second-grader at W.E. Cundiff Elementary School in Vinton. Drew's teacher is Rhonda MacDonald.
Erik Scott, a fifth-grader at Community School in Hollins is the winner in the third-fifth-grade division. His teacher is Betsy Bursey.
Taking top honors in the sixth-eighth-grade division is Serene Alami, a sixth-grader at Cave Spring Junior High School in Roanoke County. Karen Campbell is Serene's teacher.
Receiving honorable mention in the kindergarten-second-grade division are: Jennifer Craighead, second grade at Virginia Heights Elementary in Roanoke; Curtis Morris, second grade at W.E. Cundiff Elementary; and Savanna Rutherford, second grade at Dublin Elementary School.
The following pupils received honorable mention in the third-fifth-grade division: Amanda Hobbs, fifth grade at Green Valley Elementary in Roanoke County; Amy Cannaday, third grade at Woolwine Elementary in Stuart; Heather Morrison, third grade, Woolwine Elementary; Kirsten Paige Johnson, fourth grade, Oak Grove Elementary in Roanoke County; Elizabeth Ann Willett, fourth grade, Oak Grove; Melanie Kinney, fifth grade, Oak Grove; Christina Longobardi, fifth grade, Kipps Elementary in Blacksburg; Sarah Crockett, third grade, Spiller Primary in Wytheville; Randy Wertz, fifth grade, Glen Cove Elementary in Roanoke County; Bryan Turner, fifth grade, Green Valley Elementary; and Elbert Lee, fifth grade, Green Valley.
Honorable mention in the sixth-eighth grade-division goes to: Jennifer Williams, sixth grade, Cave Spring Junior High; Luke Martinkosky, eighth grade, Floyd County High School; David Harbourt, sixth grade, Cave Spring Junior; Carter Ross, sixth grade, Cave Spring Junior; Jack Thomas Warner, sixth grade, William Byrd Middle School in Vinton; Kara McKinney, sixth grade, Cave Spring Junior; and Nisha Nagarkatti, seventh grade, Blacksburg Middle School.
Contest winners will receive a Roanoke Times & World-News umbrella. Their teachers will receive a thermal mug.
Here are the winning stories:
Kindergarten-second-grade winner
In the year 2095, books will be called locks. You will have to open them with keys. Phones will fly and show you a picture of who you are talking to. All people will have homes. There will not be any homeless people or hungry people. Games will be called patches. There will be jet packs for pets. There will be jet shoes for people. There will be time traveler guns. People will live on the sun.
In 2095, there will be kids' UFOs. There will be ice hockey baseball and no school. There will be evaporation guns. In the year 2095, you will not have to use a key to enter your house. A sensor will scan fingerprints and will allow only authorized people in. To make life easier, there will be robots in every house that can be programmed to do things like cooking meals, cleaning house, washing the car, doing laundry, driving the family car, and they will make stuff for the house. Cars will be improved so they won't pollute the air. You won't shop in stores. You will shop through computers or phone.
- Drew Kahle
Third-fifth-grade winner
It is the year 2095 and we are now approaching Mars. We are traveling at extremely high speeds and we should be arriving in about five minutes. The first 50 spacecrafts have already been sent up and 100 are still on Earth.
Last month we discovered there was no more room to live on Earth. It was too full of garbage. Half the world's population has died of skin cancer because the ozone layer has almost completely deteriorated. Another reason we have to move is because we don't have any more clean water.
Two months ago, scientists discovered water and oxygen on Mars. Then the government told us to pack our suitcases. "We have landed," some one yelled. I looked out the window. Mars was beautiful. Trees and wildflowers grew all over. In the distance, I saw factory workers dumping waste into the water and smoke being let out through chimneys.
Then I thought, "What will happen when we pollute Mars?"
I opened my eyes. I was back home in my bed, and it was the year 1995. Suddenly I realized we had to change what we were doing, and we had to change fast.
- Serene Alami
Sixth-eighth-grade winner
As I walk down the cushioned sidewalk, I glance at the mutant zoo of the mutated animals from the nuclear war of 2072. I keep walking and come to a holographic news dispenser. I insert a namo (the namo replaced the quarter in 2079) and get a holographic news projector (H.N.P.). I press the red button on the H.N.P. A holographic movie of the news comes out of my H.N.P. It says that the war in space over who gets the northern half of Mars is still on.
In other news, President Gronwold (the 74th president) has agreed to attach a global cooler to Hubble VI to stop global warming. I get a zicklo (one of the American currencies since 2079) out of my pocket and put it into the soda materializer machine and it materializes a soda for me. I sip it as I walk home to my apartment on the 458th floor. I take the supersonic elevator up. I put my hand on the fingerprint scanner and my door slides open. I walk in, turn on the holographic projection machine (like a TV, but with 3-D projections), and fall asleep in front of it.
- Erik Scott
by CNB