Judges helped Betty Griffin Center go through hundreds of entries from students in the St. Johns County School District to select winners in the 2022 Day Without Violence Art and Poetry Calendar Contest.
“We were excited to receive over 1,000 art and poetry entries for our contest, which made it challenging for our judges to narrow them down to the final winners for our annual calendar,” said Betty Griffin Center CEO Joyce Mahr. “We’re also very appreciative that The Hartley Press agreed to sponsor the costs associated with printing the calendar, which helps us to continue to offer this program to involve students in our mission.”
Mahr added that the agency was also “very grateful” for the continued support of the contest by St. Johns County School Teachers, despite “all the challenges they faced during the pandemic.”
The 2022 calendar winners include the following:
ART WINNERS
First place – Ailani Valencia, 10th grade, Ponte Vedra High School
Second place – Danica Klir, 8th grade, Freedom Crossing Academy
Creekside High School – Katerina Andersen, 11th grade; Natalie Hopwood, 9th grade; Hanna Glatz, 10th grade; Gwynn Williams, 10th grade; Grace O’Malley, 11th grade
Fruit Cove Middle School – Lyla Kohl, 8th grade
Freedom Crossing Academy – Alexandria Drdla, 8th grade
Palm Valley Academy – Juliette Weber, 4th grade
Mill Creek Academy – Kayla Shoemaker, 7th grade
Ponte Vedra High School – Hollis Lane, 10th grade
Pacetti Bay Middle School – Marie Jimenez, 7th grade
POETRY WINNERS
First place – Evie Brown, 4th grade, home school
Second place – Jack Reid , 6th grade, home school
Mill Creek Academy – Ainsley Forga, 7th grade
Fruit Cove Middle School – Gabriella Dutton, 8th grade
The contest was open to all St. Johns County students in kindergarten through 12th grade, whether they attended public school, private school or were home-schooled. The number of entries vary each year, depending on the number of students that participate. First-place winners will receive $50, second-place winners receive $25 and all students receiving honorable mentions receive $10 each.
This year their artwork will showcased at the opening of the First Friday Art Walk in St. Augustine Art Walk on Oct. 1 and displayed at the Crisp Ellert Art Museum at Flagler College throughout October to coincide with Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
This year’s judges were local artists Annie Kiyonaga and Nancy Hamlin-Vogler, along with Kathe O’Donnelly, the local arts administrator with the St. Johns Cultural Council. The judges selected the winning entries based on their effectiveness in conveying a positive impression of peacefulness and cooperation, artistic merit, originality, diversity of images (race, gender, age, ability, etc.) and geographical diversity within St. Johns County.
All 13 winning artists and four poets, along with eight other previous poetry winners, will have their work reproduced in the Betty Griffin Center “A Day Without Violence 2022 Calendar.” The agency prints more than 3,000 calendars for distribution throughout the county.
In addition to reaching students through the calendar contest, Betty Griffin Center also provides community/school presentations and education as part of its mission to raise awareness about domestic and sexual violence. Last year, the center provided trainings and workshops, both virtually and in person, to select St. Johns County Schools.
Go to bettygriffincenter.org for more about the Betty Griffin Center.
