Press Release: The Winners for the Shirley Martin Scholarship for Young Songwriters have been Announced:

SAMI, (The Songwriters Association of Mid-north Indiana,) has selected the winners to the Shirley Martin Scholarship for Young Songwriters this past week and wanted to congratulate the winners:

Scholarship Winner: Amanda Fletcher, age 15, Lafayette, IN, “Moving On”

First Runner Up: Molly Miller, age 15, Monticello, IN, “Getaway Car”

Second Runner Up: Ashton McClure, age 17, State Line, IN, “Jared’s Song”

Horizon Award: Keara Powell, Age 15, West Lebanon, IN, “Come Back (Kanga and Mingan)”

The scholarship winner receives a $500.00 cash prize in addition to a few other prizes. There are also perks for the other top promising songwriters including gift certificates and opportunities to perform. This year’s winners will be playing their songs and accepting their awards on Tuesday May 13th, 7:00 pm at the TAF building, 638 North Street in downtown Lafayette. The public is welcome.

SAMI was formed as a resource for the purpose of education, encouragement, networking and the development of songwriters in mid-north Indiana. This scholarship supports young songwriters in memory of Shirley Martin, one of the earliest members, who passed away in 1998.

In order to participate, applicants needed to be songwriters between the ages of 14-19 years old and submit a recorded song complete with lyrics. Applicants also needed to be permanent residents of Indiana and live within one of these 13 counties: Benton, Carroll, Cass, Clinton, Fountain, Howard, Jasper, Montgomery, Newton, Pulaski, Tippecanoe, Tipton, Warren or White. Entries were judged on songwriting abilities, not performance capabilities. The judging focused on song components including melody, chord structure, rhythm and lyrics.

For more information about SAMI, or to get scholarship info including deadlines for applications, check out the www.samisong.com website.