SPJ Florida Helped Sunrise Students with “Kids Guide to Sunrise”

SPJ Florida was honored to lend a hand to young travel writers as they put together a guide to their city, Sunrise.

Area high school students in the Sunrise Leadership Academy guided fourth grade students from Sandpiper Elementary School through the writing process. Before putting pen to paper, Christiana Lilly, SPJ Florida secretary, visited with SLA and talked about the ins and outs of travel writing.

Doing plenty of travel writing as a freelance journalist, Lilly talked to SLA about thinking about your audience, what kind of places to feature, and using your expertise as a local to help visitors. She also grew up in six different countries growing up and talked to the high school students about that experience too.

The fourth graders were given the task to create a “Kids Guide to Sunrise,” which would be published and distributed throughout the city. Inside the guide, the youngsters provided tips on their favorites place to eat, play, and learn in the city in west Broward County. SLA, city of Sunrise employees, and school teachers helped create the guide with a series of exercises and field trips. At the end of the school year, they threw a publishing party and got their own copy of the completed travel guide.

It was great to see the city of Sunrise and surrounding areas through the eyes of a child, and SPJ Florida hopes to participate in more activities with the city and its young residents.