Welcome to the 2026 Rappahannock Student Storytelling Contest website!
Prompt: Write a true story about a person of your grandparents’ generation or older from your family lineage or the Rappahannock community and what their story
means to you.
What is Foothills Forum?
Foothills Forum is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization working in partnership with the Rappahannock News. Foothills Forum pays journalists, editors who research and produce award-winning reporting. The two organizations are partners in creating a local newspaper that contains important information that area readers need and want to know. They connect people in the community through reported events, features and covering topics families need to know, such as local government, elected officers and more.
Why a Storytelling Contest?
Foothills Forum and the Rappahannock News started the contest eight years ago at the suggestion of Stephen Brooks, on Foothills’ Board of Directors. Its goal is to help the younger generation learn why the stories in their own community – the important work journalists do – are valuable and should be told.
