Young artist wins big for her school

Times Reporter

 

For an aspiring artist, having your work recognized is one of the first steps to making it big. While stardom may be a way off yet, Grade 6 Trinity Lutheran Christian Academy, TLCA, student Vanessa Bolinger recently won the Aggie Days Front Cover Contest. 

“Our teacher Mr. Warr told us about it. It was our project in art, we had to get it done,” said Bolinger.

“I didn’t enter mine in the contest. Mr. Warr and my mom entered it for me. I thought that I was past the deadline but I wasn’t.” 

She found out after school one day – her dad picked her up and told her she had won. She didn’t really believe it at first because she didn’t know the picture had been submitted into the contest.

“I like the barns, like red barns, so I put a big red barn in there. I live on a farm so we do gardening and stuff so I put a garden. Sometimes we have to put our clothes outside on the line so I put that out,” said Bolinger, describing her poster. 

Harold Warr, principal and teacher at TLCA, said he found it to be an interesting project since the students have always attended Aggie Days. Warr said he thought it would be a good fit for the students to enter the contest before attending Aggie Days in April. 

Bolinger was the winner in the Grade 4 to 6 category in the Calgary area. She won $200 for herself and a $2,300 technology spending spree for the school. 

“With that money we purchased an active board for her classroom which didn’t have one,” said Warr.

“It was wonderful because we needed the active board and it (was) won. It eliminated the need to do a whole lot of fundraising for that class.” 

They had another board donated by a family and there is another one coming, which will be paid for by the Read-A-Thon. All of the classrooms at TLCA now have active boards.