STUDENTS USE ART TO PROMOTE SAFETY

Posters tackled the issue of healthy choices through addiction awareness

Three local girls' "addictive" posters have won them money,
recognition and the opportunity to showcase their art in Dowling's
Value Mart as they got one step closer to winning national awards.

The posters, which tackled the issue of healthy choices through
addiction awareness, were part of the Elks and Royal Purple's
Literary, Poster and Video contest.

According to eight-year-old Larchwood Public School student Willow
Hilderbrandt, the third-place winner in the primary poster category
(grades 2 and 3), being recognized at the provincial level "feels pretty good."

"It was kind of, I was feeling kind of nervous at first because I
thought there was gonna be a lot of people," Willow said after an
award ceremony was held for her and the two other winners at a Royal
Purple meeting this week.

Willow's poster consisted of someone yelling at someone else to stop
smoking and although she is pleased she won, she said her poster had
to be handed in incomplete.

"I put 'no smoking' in big letters and I put one person like this,"
she said, as she cupped her mouth with her hands. "I was gonna put
another person smoking beside it, but I didn't have time because we
already had to put it in."

At the meeting, which was held at St. John's United Church in Levack,
Willow was awarded a cheque for $25.

Eleven-year-old Tyanna Dallaire from Ecole St. Etienne was awarded
$50 for placing second in the junior poster category (grades 4, 5 and 6).

Nine-year-old Jazmin Ayotte of Larchwood Public School won $75 for
her first-place finish in the primary poster category.

"We had to choose between two roads," Tyanna said about the theme of
her poster. "The good road or the bad road where you do drugs and
that, and I suggested you take the good road because that's the way to go."

Tyanna said her mother's words of wisdom were her inspiration for the poster.

"My mom told me all the time to pick the right road because you are
gonna have to make a decision and if you take the right road, then
you'll have a home and a family," she said.

As for Jazmin, her poster was also based around making the right choice.

"I just kind of got the idea of doing two houses," she said about her
poster. "One of them was a sick house and the guy living in it was
very sick and he did drugs and he smoked a lot and there was a
picture of him with an alcohol bottle in his hand and a key."

Terrie Shinton, Honoured Royal Lady of the Royal Purple Lodge #145 in
Levack, said this is the lodge's first provincial award since the
competition's inception five years ago.

"We are very proud that we had winners in this area and we hope they
compete again next year," Shinton said.

Although she doesn't know when the decision will be made, Shinton is
excited about the nationals and the girls are right alongside her.

"It felt really good because I've never been that far," Tyanna said.
"I wasn't expecting it and I am excited about the nationals, this is
actually my first time entering it."

"I did not expect it and it feels good to win. I am excited about the
nationals."