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By COLIN HICKEY, Blethen Maine News Service Tuesday, May 1, 2007

WINSLOW - Catherine Campbell-York is years away from high school, but she's a letter winner already.

Catherine, a student at St. John Regional Catholic School, outperformed about 21,000 second-graders in a National Handwriting Contest sponsored by Zaner-Bloser Educational Publishers, placing first among private school competitors.

Dennis Williams, Zaner-Bloser's national product manager for handwriting, said nearly 28,000 second-graders sent in entries, with about 75 percent coming from private schools.

"The pool young Catherine was competing in was a deep pool," Williams said.

As a national champion, Catherine, an Albion resident, will receive a $500 savings bond, a Nintendo DS Brain Age package and an award certificate. She and her classmates, teachers and families also get Zaner-Bloser T-Shirts, and St. John Catholic School is slated to get $100 worth of learning materials from the Columbus, Ohio, company.

Catherine and a schoolmate, third-grader Hannah Duperry of Oakland, also received prizes for finishing first in their age categories at the state level.

In judging entries, Zaner-Bloser evaluates the four S's of handwriting: slant, shape, spacing and size.

Catherine, however, suggested that success in the contest depends on a fifth S.

"It has to be all silent," she said of the classroom when the handwriting occurs. "If somebody is screaming, you can't concentrate at all."

St. John Catholic School teacher Sarah Sirois first alerted school administrators to the contest, which attracted 157,000 students in 2007, the competition's 16th year.

Success came quickly for St. John Catholic School students. From 2004 to 2006, the school had a state winner each year.

Sirois said the contest provides students extra motivation to work on handwriting, which she called "an important part of learning" at the K-5 school.

Hannah agreed. "It's important to me," she said, "because usually if you don't write really neat, it doesn't look so good and makes it harder for people to read what you've written."

Catherine, as a second-grader, competed in the print division. Hannah had to submit an entry in cursive.