OLIVE GARDEN ASKS KIDS HOW TO USE THE INTERNET TO BETTER THEIR COMMUNITIES
Olive Garden’s 13th-annual Pasta Tales essay contest begins Oct.6

Kids and teens lead the digital revolution, sharing their ideas online every day. Now Olive Garden wants them to channel that knowledge and creativity to make a difference in their local communities. This year, Olive Garden’s 13th-annual Pasta Tales essay writing contest asked students in first through 12th-grade: “How would you use the Internet to change your community for the better?” The grand prize winning essay is worth a three-day trip to New York and a $2,500 savings bond

From Monday, Oct. 6 through Friday, Dec. 19, Olive Garden accepted essays of 50 to 250 words from students in the U.S. and Canada.  Winners will be announced in May of 2009.  The grand prize is a trip to New York, dinner at the Olive Garden in Times Square and a $2,500 savings bond. A winner also will be chosen in each grade category and receive a $500 savings bond and a family dinner at their local Olive Garden.

Submissions are judged based on creativity, adherence to theme, organization, grammar, punctuation and spelling by the Quill and Scroll Society of the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Iowa, with finalists selected by Olive Garden.  For more information about Pasta Tales, call Katie Lennon at (954) 776-1999, ext. 240 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. EST.

Olive Garden is the leading restaurant in the Italian dining segment with 670 restaurants, more than 80,000 employees and $3.1 billion in annual sales. Olive Garden is a division of Darden Restaurants Inc. (NYSE:DRI), the world’s largest full-service owned and operated restaurant company

List of 2008 Pasta Tales Grade-Category Winners

Please be sure to read the official rules of the contest.