Bluffton seventh grader Ellie Nickel is the first place winner in this year's Bluffton Lions Club International Peace Poster Contest, according to Coleen Lazar, Lions president.

Second place winner is Lauren Swartzlander. Third place winner is Wes Brauen.

Ellie's poster advances to the district level to be judged against poster winners from across northwestern Ohio. Last year’s Bluffton winner, Luisa Dunlap, was also the Lions district winner.

Bluffton's winners were announced at the Lions Club luncheon on Nov. 15.

Judging of the Bluffton Middle School entries was on Oct. 25 by Lions Club members Bill and Jo Croft, Jan Emmert and Lazar. 

Entries were evaluated based on artistic merit, originality, and the best expression of this year’s contest theme, “A Celebration of Peace.”

"We want to expressed our appreciation to Nicole Anderson, middle school art teacher, who has enthusiastically used the annual contest as a teaching project in her art classes for the past seven years," said Lazar.

The posters entered by Bluffton Middle School art students are among over 600,000 submitted worldwie.  Winners at different levels advance to compete for an international grand prize and 23 merit awards. These are given to students from many different countries.

The Bluffton Lions Club is one of 46,000 Lions clubs in over 200 countries. These clubs share a common focus on activities related to vision and conquering blindness, helping youth, and a variety of local service activities, such as developing Bluffton’s bikeway paths, vision screening for children, scholarships, and the Festival of Wheels.

PHOTO BELOW:
The top three poster artists.