Raising Readers Contest Rules

Eligibility
The Raising Readers essay contest is open to all children ages 10-13 who live in the 50 states. Employees, officers, and directors, (and their immediate family members and members of the same households, whether related or not) of Mpls.St.Paul Magazine and judges of this contest, are not eligible to participate. Students enrolled in colleges, universities, or other advanced degree programs are not eligible. Participants agree to abide by the terms of these official rules and by the decisions of Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, which are final and binding on all matters pertaining to the contest. Participants under the age of 18 must obtain the consent of a parent or legal guardian (as described below) to enter the contest. Mpls.St.Paul Magazine reserves the right to disqualify any participant that it determines, in its sole discretion, is ineligible to participate in the contest. The contest is subject to all applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations and is void where prohibited by law or regulation.

Essay Requirements
Participants must produce their own work. Essays from children ages 10-13 should be no longer than 300 words and should be submitted online at mspmag/raisingreaderscontest.

Submissions
No purchase is necessary, and there is no fee to enter or to win. Entries will be accepted until November 30, 2007. Only fully completed entry forms are eligible. Proof of submission will not be deemed to be proof of receipt by Mpls.St.Paul Magazine. You must submit your essay online at mspmag.com/raisingreaderscontest. All online submissions must be received by 11:59 pm CST on November 30, 2007. When the parent or legal guardian provides his or her name, e-mail address and phone number during the online submission process, s/he attests that s/he has read and understands the rules of the contest. All online submissions will be deleted from Mpls.St.Paul Magazine’s online server at the end of the contest.
A parent or legal guardian must provide their contact information as outlined above, attesting that he or she has read, understood, and agrees to these contest rules and that such agreement constitutes acceptance of these contest rules on behalf of his or her child and him or herself. Entries without the necessary consent of a parent or legal guardian will not be accepted.
After the finalists are selected, Mpls.St.Paul Magazine will contact the parent or legal guardian of each finalist to verify that the child’s information is correct and that s/he does indeed approve of his or her child’s participation.
 
Any fraudulent information provided by participants will lead to immediate disqualification from the contest.

ONLY ONE ENTRY PER PERSON. Contest rules can be printed out from the Mpls.St.Paul Magazine’s web site. All essays will become the property of Mpls.St.Paul Magazine upon submission and will not be returned. Mpls.St.Paul Magazine is not responsible for lost, late, illegible, stolen, incomplete, invalid, unintelligible, misdirected, technically corrupted, or garbled entries, which will be disqualified, or for problems of any kind, whether mechanical, human, or electronic. All winning essays may be reproduced and distributed in Mpls.St.Paul Magazine publications, as well as posted on its Web site. Winning essays may be used for other purposes if determined by Mpls.St.Paul Magazine and that such use would advance its mission. Mpls.St.Paul Magazine reserves the right to edit all essays used in a Mpls.St.Paul Magazine publications or posted on its web site.

Children’s Privacy Policy
We do not collect any personally identifiable information about minors on mspmag.com. We only ask for their first name, age, city, state and zip. We ask that the parents provide their name, email address and phone number as legal verification that they’ve authorized their child’s participation in the online contest. Mpls.St.Paul Magazine does not collect more information than reasonably necessary to conduct the essay contest. Such information will not be used or disclosed to any other entity for marketing or other purposes. A parent or legal guardian will be contacted if additional information is needed from the participant and in the event of a winning essay. No information about a winner will be used for any publicity or promotional purposes in regards to the contest without the specific permission of the parent or legal guardian. A parent or legal guardian has the right to review, change, and/or delete the participant’s personal information, and to refuse to permit Mpls.St.Paul Magazine’s further collection, use, or disclosure of the participant’s information. All such personal information will be deleted once the contest has ended. However, acceptance of a prize constitutes the winner’s permission for Mpls.St.Paul Magazine to use his/her name, state, age, school, likeness, photograph, picture, portrait, voice, biographical information, essay, and/or any statements made by each winner regarding this contest for advertising and promotional purposes without notice or additional compensation, except where prohibited by law.

Judging
The essays will be judged by editors at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine. Judges will review all eligible essays. Essays submitted online must be received by 11:59 CST November 30, 2007.

Winners will be notified by December 17, 2007.
Judging Criteria
All essays will be judged according to the criteria listed below. Judges will adjust their scoring based on the age and grade level of each participant.

1. Understanding of the issue: An outstanding essay will demonstrate that the participant understands the topic and what is being asked about the book. The essay should present a clear point of view.
2. Originality: Participants are not expected to conduct research for this essay. However, we do encourage participants to ask community members, parents, guardians, mentors and teachers for input. Essays should display the participant’s ability to develop his or her own ideas.
3. Clarity and effectiveness of style and organization: Essays should be grammatically correct and accurate in terms of spelling and word usage. Essays should present information in a clear and logical manner.
4. Adherence to format and length rules: Essays must be no longer than 300 words.

Awards
The top three essays will each be awarded a $100 gift certificate to Target.

Notification
Winners and their parents will be notified by e-mail or telephone.

Conditions
All federal, state, and local taxes are the sole responsibility of the winner (if a minor, the parent/legal guardian). Participation in this contest and acceptance of a prize constitutes the winner’s permission for Mpls.St.Paul Magazine to use his/her name, state, age, likeness, photograph, essay, and/or any statements made by each winner regarding this contest for advertising and promotional purposes without notice or additional compensation, except where prohibited by law. By entering, participants and winners agree to release and hold harmless Mpls.St.Paul Magazine and its employees, officers, and directors, from any and all liability for loss, harm, damage, injury, cost, or expense whatsoever, including without limitation, property damage, personal injury, and/or death, which may occur in connection with participation in this contest or any contest-related activity, or possession, acceptance, and/or use or misuse of a prize and for any claims based on publicity rights, defamation, or invasion of privacy and merchandise delivery. Mpls.St.Paul Magazine is not responsible if a prize cannot be awarded due to delays or interruptions due to acts of God, acts of war, natural disasters, weather, or acts of terrorism. Participants who do not comply with these Contest Rules, or who attempt to interfere with this contest in any way, shall be disqualified. There is no purchase or entry fee required to participate.

Limitation of Liability
If for any reason the contest is not capable of running as planned, including infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, or if any other causes corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of the contest, Mpls.St.Paul Magazine reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to cancel, terminate, modify, or suspend the contest, as well as to disqualify any individual who tampers with the contest. Mpls.St.Paul Magazine assumes no responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft, or destruction or unauthorized access to, or alteration of, entries. Mpls.St.Paul Magazine is not responsible for problems or technical malfunctions of any telephone network or lines, computer online systems, servers, or providers’ computer equipment, software, failure of any e-mail to be received by Mpls.St.Paul Magazine on account of technical problems, or traffic congestion on the Internet or at any Web site, or any combination thereof, including any injury or damage to participant’s or any other person’s computer related to or resulting from participation or downloading any materials in this contest.

Contest Results/Winner
The winners’ names, ages, and cities/states will be listed in Raising Readers in the May 2008 issue of Mpls.St.Paul Magazine and on Mpls.St.Paul Magazine’s Web site – mspmag.com.