On March 23, Quinlan Community Center will host young musicians, artists and poets who entered the contest from the Cupertino-Fremont Council Parent-Teacher Association and other local PTAs. The youngsters created their works for the national program, which encourages creative exploration on a specific theme each year. This year, the theme was "I Wonder Why..."

All first-place entries in the council recently went to the state PTA for judging. The areas included are literature, musical composition, photography and the visual arts. Grade levels include primary, which is preschool through second grade; intermediate, which is grades three through five; middle/junior, grades six through eight; and senior, which is ninth through 12th grade.

And the winners are:

Stocklmeir Elementary School--Nicholas Berger Davis placed third in primary music composition; Yossi Hertzberg placed fifth in primary photography; Leslie Tsai placed second and Anand Purohit placed fifth in intermediate photography.

Laurelwood Elementary--Jee Youn Moon placed third in primary visual arts and Shannon Peterson placed third in primary literature.

Peterson Middle School--Kara Johnson took both third and fourth places in intermediate literature.

Wilcox High School--Jin Kim and Kent Fend placed third and fourth in senior music competition; Bryan Dunmire won first and second place in senior photography and Josh Smith, Nina Valtchev and Hannah Burnette all placed in the senior literature category. Smith took second, Valtchev third and Burnette fifth.

Homestead High--Tiffany Liu placed third in senior visual arts.

Students will perform and exhibit their work on March 23 at 7 p.m. at the Quinlan center, which is located at 10185 N. Stelling Road in Cupertino.