BeNard Jones BreAnna Jones visits the Capitol in Washington D.C. with her family before the Poetry Out Loud finals. Links   E-mail             Print            Advertisement

Sitting in the computer lab last winter, 16-year-old BreAnna Jones, a sophomore at West Valley High School, indifferently searched through hundreds of poems -- from William Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" to Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Recuerdo."

Not finding any particular poem that spoke to her, she decided on a humorous poem, "Beautiful Black Men" by Nikki Giovanni. As she sat in class memorizing it, she thought only of one thing: Perform well and get a good grade.

However, BreAnna, who loves to dance, ended up turning a classroom assignment into a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

The classroom activity -- memorizing and reciting a poem -- was for Poetry Out Loud. The competition's goal, starting at the classroom level, is to interest youth in poetry through recitation.

BreAnna won her classroom contest, then performed at the school level, competing against students of all grades at West Valley. For this part of the contest, she had to recite two poems in front of an audience of parents, teachers and students. For her second poem, she chose another humorous one: "Forgetfulness" by Billy Collins.

"It was nerve-wracking to do it in front of my peers," says BreAnna, who was chosen to continue at the regional level.

But she told her parents she didn't want to perform again.

"She didn't want to go on because her plate was already filled, but her teacher wanted her to, so BreAnna did," says her mother, Debbie Jones, 47.

The regional contest was held at Yakima's Allied ArtsCenter, 5000 W. Lincoln Ave. There, about a dozen students from Yakima Valley schools competed against each other by reciting three poems. BreAnna recited "Forgetfulness," "Vita Nova" by Louise Glück and "The Old Swimmin' Hole" by James Whitcomb Riley.

"After I heard her, I realized that she had a naturalness about her," her mom says.

And that "naturalness" enabled her to win again. BreAnna and two other high school students advanced to the state competition in Tacoma.

And, says BreAnna: "The skill level went way up."

Ten teenagers from high schools across Washington competed at the state event -- and BreAnna won again, earning a spot at the national contest in Washington, D.C.

"I am not a stage mom whatsoever, and I rarely see my kids compete, so when she won I started to cry," her mom says.

BreAnna started practicing for the national competition a mere two weeks before the event. Many of the other students, however, had personal coaches with whom they practice all year.

"I didn't want to over-practice. I wanted it to be fresh," says BreAnna. Her father, DeNard Jones, 45, helped her with precision and accuracy.

"I gave her only a little feedback and critique," he says. "She found her voice very quickly."

There were 52 students in the national competition, one from each state plus the Virgin Islands and the District of Columbia.

BreAnna was one of the top 12 contestants. She didn't make the final cut, but she isn't going to give up.

"I really want to compete next year and maybe the year after," she says with a grin.

Meantime, BreAnna is in New York City on another adventure, this time through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which grants wishes to young people with life-threatening conditions.

Early last year, BreAnna felt a pressure in her chest whenever she bent over. Two days later, she felt a mass on her left clavicle; she told her parents, who took her to the doctor.

A CAT scan showed tumors in her chest and left clavicle, and in February 2007 she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer that attacks the lymphatic system, the part of the body that fights infections.

BreAnna's cancer has been in remission for about a year.

Last November, 44-year-old Sherrie Leavitt, a local Make-a-Wish volunteer, met with BreAnna and asked her what her wish was.

After doing research on the Internet, BreAnna decided on her dream: to participate in a two-week program at the School of Cinema and Performing Arts in New York City.

Leavitt made BreAnna's wish come true.

On June 20, she and her parents flew to the Big Apple to see a Yankees game, the Empire State Building, and other New York City sites. Two days later, they dropped BreAnna off at a camp to do what she has always loved to do: dance.