Since fourth grade, Cameron Woody has been writing musical lyrics in a little notebook she keeps with her.
“I fell in love with song-writing,” said Cameron, a fifth-grader at Lincoln Academy. “I go in my room, look at the notes, test them on my keyboard, and go from there.”
Cameron’s dedication to music composition was rewarded recently when she received the Music Composition Award of Excellence from the National PTA Reflections contest. Cameron advanced to the national level after winning first place in the Guilford County Schools PTA Reflections contest and first place in the North Carolina PTA Reflections contest.
Her entry, “Fly Away (Believe, Dream, Inspire)” was one of 10 to win a national award and one of only three to receive the National Award of Excellence, the highest award.
The daughter of Carol McConnell and Jonathan Woody, Cameron wrote her piece for the piano and performed it on the keyboard and sang.
“The piece is meant to be inspiring,” Cameron said. “I think you should follow your dreams and don’t let anyone tell you you can’t do it.”
When Cameron heard she had won a national award, she was thrilled.
“I felt all fluttery inside,” she said.
She recently began piano lessons and is already working on her musical composition piece for next year’s Reflections contest, which has the theme “The world would be a better place if …”
Cameron hopes to keep music a big part of her future.
“If singing doesn’t work out for me, maybe I’ll write songs for artists,” she said. “I love it.”
