(Denise Morse greets Wellness Fair attendees at the MECAC Art Contest tables)
MECAC is excited to announce that this year we accepted 43 entries for the contest, approximately ten more than last year. The theme for the art contest for grades K-6 was "The Art of Healthy Living." In the months before the contest deadline of May 9, MECAC Board of Director Members personally went to most of the elementary schools in the Mountain Empire region and gave presentations at school assemblies to encourage participation in healthy living and in entering the art contest. MECAC gives special kudos to Mrs. Tanner's Kindergarten Class and Ms. MsEvoy's Second Graders, both of Descanso Elementary School, for their wonderful class participation! A MECAC delegate will be awarding both classes with Honorable Mention ribbons this week as a thank-you to these two classes who created such colorful and remarkable artwork.
In fact, the MECAC Board Members who "manned" (rather, "womanned") the art tables were approached by the Albertson's managers who asked if the art contest participants would be willing to hang their art in the brand-new Albertson's grocery store in Alpine. What a great idea to let the entire community see the creativity of our young backcountry artists!
Our First Place winners in the Kindergarten-Third Grade and Fourth-Sixth Grade categories were Sammy of Descanso Elementary, with his fine "Vitamin" poster, and Evan of Pine Valley Elementary with his wonderful watermelon glass mosaic.
Our Second Place winners in the Kindergarten-Third Grade and Fourth-Sixth Grade categories were Benjamin of Heritage Christian School with his colored-pencil drawing of a pear and banana, and Marian of Descanso Elementary with her drawing of a basketball game. The Third Place winners in the above categories were Philippa of Pine Valley Elementary with her painting/crayon depiction of a fruit basket, and Jonathan of Heritage Christian School with his colored-pencil drawing of an apple.
And our Grand Prize Winner for Mixed Media was Samantha of Pine Valley Elementary with her three-dimensional tissue-paper-and-glue fruit bowl. The judges were very impressed with the creativity and attention to detail demonstrated in this work of art.
Prizes of quality art supplies from Aaron Brothers for each winner were contributed by the Wellness Council and chosen by MECAC. Our outgoing Director, Denise Morse, kept everyone hopping -- or at least bouncing -- as the kids and adults who were receiving stamps on their cards to enter in the prize drawings had to bounce a ball on a wooden paddle a certain number of times in order to earn their stamp. Hand-eye coordination is integral to art, right? Our current Director, Judith Dupree, and our Secretary, Susanne Barrett, also helped to "woman" the art contest table at the Wellness Fair, along with the help of outgoing Board Member Margo Kreger.
This art contest was the culmination of several months' work by MECAC of planning and setting up the contest, promoting the contest in the schools, collecting and storing the artwork at the deadline, purchasing prizes for the different categories, attending Wellness Council meetings, judging the artwork, and then setting up the display of the art, representing MECAC at the Wellness Fair, and then packing up the artwork once again. Plus some prizes and ribbons still need to be presented this week to winners who did not attend the Wellness Fair.
MECAC extends thanks to the Wellness Fair for their support of the Arts and of the children of the Mountain Empire region as well as the Mountain Empire Collaborative which presented MECAC with a check for $250 at the Wellness Fair for MECAC's Summer Art Program. Part of MECAC's goal is to work with the children of our backcountry communities to provide them with quality artistic opportunities. Our goal was more than accomplished in this month's Wellness Fair Art Contest.
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