OLYMPIA -- Governor Chris Gregoire today honored six young people who wrote about their difficult family lives until relatives took them in and raised them.

The six were winners in the Kinship Expression Contest, which is a collaborative effort by Washington State Relatives as Parents Program (RAPP), several Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) administrations, Casey Family Programs and the Twin County Credit Union.

The winners' ages ranged from 7 to 16 and they expressed themselves in poetry and prose.

A part of one 14-year-old's poem says:

The abuse was excruciating agony

My life was a knife piercing my hear

I thought I was doomed at age 12

That's when my life fell painfully apart ....

I still had my aunt and uncle

My life, my hope, my aid

When I moved in I was worried I wouldn't be welcome

I would break into tears and bawl

But my aunt and uncle were there

They would never let me fall ....

The six winners were selected from approximately 50 children who submitted entries. Each winner receives a certificate signed by the governor, a $100 check from the Twin County Credit Union, a journal and tickets to a Mariners baseball game.

More than 35,000 grandparents and other relatives are caring for children born into their extended families in Washington.

Kinship care reduces the trauma children experience when placed with strangers, according to Shelly Willis, kinship caregiver and associate director of Family Education and Support Services, a provider of Kinship Support Services for Thurston, Lewis and Mason counties. She added that kinship care also enhances a child's sense of identity and self-esteem, continues connections children have to siblings and other relatives and strengthens the families' abilities to support the children.

DSHS sponsors of the contest included the Aging and Disability Services and Children's administrations and the Child Support Enforcement and Family Education and Support Services.

(Editors Note: The six children winning the awards are from Seattle, Olympia, Goldendale, Sunnyside, Tenino and Everett. To interview a winner, contact Shelly Willis at 360-754-7629 or email olympiaparented@aol.com)