Strathmore Legion awards student art
By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The Strathmore Legion is celebrating local youth and distributing this year’s Royal Canadian Legion (RCL) 10 Student Awards at the beginning of February.
Jennifer Franssen, public relations chair for the Strathmore Legion Branch 10, said the program begins annually in the fall and encourages as many students as possible to participate.
“In the fall, we visit the schools, we send out applications and we talk to them about the programming. It is a contest, we visit all the schools, we give them a theme … and then we ask them to develop essays or poems or posters in colour and black and white,” she said. “They submit them to us, they are judged by the branch, and then the first-place winners go on to the provincial competition and the rest of them stay here and we give them their awards and encourage them to keep participating.”
The invitation to participate is distributed to each school within Wheatland County, including the Wintering Hills Colony.
Franssen added it is a program common to each RCL branch across Canada, which leads annual winners to receiving national recognition.
Winners at the local level, judged within municipalities have their submissions sent off for provincial judgement. Winners at that level are then moved to the national stage.
“We had 27 winners this year, which is pretty good, and we are giving away almost $1,400 and we are excited to have (the students) come here because it is an opportunity too for the Legion and veterans to educate children and families about why we do this and why it is important to remember,” added Franssen. “It is not just about the veterans who have passed, but it is also about the serving veterans. It is important to understand what they do for us and that their job is to protect us.”
Judgement guidelines for the annual competition, as well as the theme are distributed by Dominion Command in Ottawa to all legions. Submissions are then judged by legion members, consisting of veterans, non-veterans, wives, etc.
Students who submit entries are divided into Junior, Intermediate and Senior categories, amidst the type of submission they decide to put forward.
“The kids in Strathmore are amazing. The submissions were just out of this world. In 2010 I believe it was, we had a national winner and her artwork was displayed on the cover of the Legion magazine,” said Franssen.
The provincial and national levels of the competition are set up exactly the same as at the municipal level.
Families of the award winners are invited to the local ceremony. Each student invited is one of the award winners, though they are not told their placement until the ceremony
Franssen did not confirm the total number of submissions, though suggested she would like to see exponentially more in future years.
Previous winners are displayed on the Dominion website, as well as information regarding the submissions
The ceremony at which students will be awarded will take place at the Strathmore Legion on Feb. 4, 2023 beginning at 11 a.m.