Photos of winners at bottom of story -
Hudson Phillips, Lauren Dearth and Brooklyn Nance are the three winners in this year's Bluffton Lions Club peace poster contest.

The three were announced in a Lions Club meeting held by Zoom on Nov. 17.  The first place winner this year is Hudson Phillips.

As in previous years, most students in the 7th grade art class prepared entries, focusing on this year's theme of the international contest.  But because of the pandemic precautions in the schools, some things were done differently than usual, according to the teacher, Jackie Bourassa. Three of the 23 students in this year's class are studying remotely, which would seem to be a major teaching challenge for an art class.

The class usually kicks off their involvement in the contest with a trip to the Bluffton University Lion and Lamb Peace Center, where Director Louise Matthews introduces some of the symbols, and ideas, that are incorporated in art and discussions of international peace.  This year, that meeting could not be held in person, so was held by Zoom. 

Since the Bluffton Lions Club has also been holding its meetings by virtually during the pandemic, this year's award ceremony was a bit different than usual.  

Lions members were in their homes, offices, or businesses.  The 7th grade art teacher and the second and third place winners were in the Middle School, and the first place winner was expected to participate from home by Zoom, since he is studying remotely.  But his Zoom link failed.

The winners were introduced, and two showed their poster and discussed what ideas they were trying to convey. 

The poster of the first place winner was also shown, and the different parts explained by the teacher.  All posters had to be related to this year's theme, “Peace through Service.” The three were thanked and congratulated on behalf of the Lions by President Patty Navin.  Superintendent Greg Denneker presented the award certificates. 

The three winners:
1st place - Hudson Phillips, son of Scott and Marie Phillips
2nd place - Lauren Dearth, daughter of Jason and Teresa Dearth
3rd place - Brooklyn Nance, daughter of Justin and Jenny Nance

The winning poster is now entered in the Lions District Level contest, and those winners into the Lions International contest, where they will compete with winners from many countries. At each level, the posters are judged by three criteria: artistic merit, creativity and originality, and their effectiveness expressing the current year's theme.

The judges of the local contest were Jan Emmert (also the contest chairperson), Jerry Szabo, and Carolyn Rich.

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.