The decision time at the Frystown Lions Club Peace Poster judging event was difficult. There were so many good entries from the Tulpehocken Junior High School visually defining this year’s Lions International Lions Peace Poster competition with the theme The Future of Peace.
That competition had more than 120 entries as it was incorporated into the 7th grade World History classes taught by Mr. Michael Mulholland, the club’s cooperating teacher for the Frystown Lions’ hosted project.
When the judging was complete, the three top posters belonged to Abby Norman, Rebecca Herrmann and Zoe Conahan,
First-place winner Abby Norman’s poster was then taken to the District competition where a tough round of judging required a run-off. There Abby Norman’s poster took third place, making her one of three District winners to be invited to the April 2018 Lions District 14-P convention. Those posters were judged on originality, artistic merit and portrayal of the contest theme.
Abby explained that the flags in her poster “represents unity” adding that “We need to work on our relationships.”
She chose different hairstyles “to show diversity and different cultures and skin colors,” adding the rainbow for the LGBT community, because “they don’t have the rights that they should have, but they are still people and deserve as many rights as everyone else.”
“I was very surprised at first,” was her reaction to the first place win at the school, adding “I was very honored to represent the school,” in terms of her win at District’s.
The three local winners were recognized by the Frystown Lions Club with a small monetary gift and other tokens of appreciation.
Rebecca Herrmann, second-place winner, also used flags of the world on her poster and a light bulb with the dove of peace in it to visually fulfill the theme: The Future of Peace.
Third place winner, Zoe Conahan, also had flags on her poster and used the peace symbol in honor of her teacher, Michael Mulholland, “because he is such a very caring kind of guy.”
She added that he says “race doesn’t matter,” and that prompted her to include the hands around the border having different color fingernails. She was also inspired by her previous art teacher.
