Lions Club Announce Winners in 2023-2024 Peace Poster Contest
n display their awards at the Meet the Artist show, sponsored by the Currahee Artist Guild and the Toccoa Lions club. The show honored the student-artists who submitted peace posters to the Lions Peace Poster Contest in the fall of 2023. All posters submitted to the Lions were published in the Lions 2024 birthday calendar. Children pictured (l-r) Emi Vena, Austyn Wright, Natalies Pinney, club mascot “Roary the Lion”, Gunner Davenport and Toccoa Lions club president Beverly Vanderhoef. Roary the Lion is played by Lion David Chase.
Student-Artist’s display frame prints of their winning posters in the Martin Lions Club peace poster contest. Pictured are (l-r) Elizabeth Pattillo, Martin Lions club president Jimmy Shore, Adam, Art Instructor Deborah Hartley, Herman Mooney, Natalies Pinney, Lion Zone Chair Brenda Gordon.
First place Martin poster by Elizabeth Pattillo
First place Toccoa poster by Emi Vena
This past Saturday, Jan. 27, the Currahee Artists Guild and the Toccoa Lions Club jointly hosted a “Meet the Artist.” show. All students who entered a poster into the Lions International Peace Poster contest in October had their work on display at the art show and published in the Lions 2024 birthday calendar. The art show was at The Studio, where the Currahee Artists Guild meets, on Doyle Street in Toccoa.
Many of the student artists attended the show and were happy to share with visitors how their poster portrayed the contest theme “Dare to Dream”.
Deborah Hartley, owner of The Studio and founder and member of the Guild, stated, “It was evident that the students put a lot of thought into the composition of their posters to tell the story of the contest theme.”
All the visitors to the art show on Saturday were treated to refreshments and personal appearances by “Seemore the Lion” and “Roary the Lion,” both mascots of the Toccoa Lions club.
The Toccoa Lions Club made their awards at the Meet the Artist Show. The club gave framed award certificates with a miniature of the peace poster and gift cards to Walmart. The Toccoa Lions paid out $335 in prize money to ten recipients. The first-place winner was Emi Vena, who won $100. The second-place winner was Natalies Pinney who won $75.00. The third-place winner was Keelie Bell who won $50. The fourth-place winner was Gunner Davenport who won $35. The fifth-place winner was Emi Vena who won $25. The Lions also awarded five honorable mentions with a $10 prize to Keelie Bell, Eli Harris, Nolan Handwork, Austyn Wright and Tegan Lewis.
Also, the Martin Lions Club held an awards dinner for the top three artists in the Martin sponsored contest on Thursday, January 4. The artists and parents enjoyed a dinner with the Lions at the Community Center in Martin. The Martin Lions presented nicely framed art prints of the Peace Posters and gift cards to Walmart. The first-place winner was Elizabeth Pattillo, who won $100. The second-place winner was Natalie Pinney who won $75. The third-place winner was Jordan Harris, who won $50.
Peace posters were submitted by individual children, children in home schooling, as well as children attending youth programming at the Toccoa-Stephens Public Library. Posters also came from students attending after-school programming at Toccoa Elementary School and the Boys and Girls Club.