For the past four years, the Foundation for Pottstown Education has been working with the Pottstown School District Art Department on designing cards used throughout the year. There are three separate categories, Thank You Cards, Holiday Cards and the Invitation for the Annual Celebration of the Arts.

Earlier in the fall, all of the art teachers provided their students with the opportunity to design the cards.  The Elementary School students design the Thank You cards, the Middle School students are asked to design the Annual Holiday Cards, and the High School Students are asked for artwork used in promoting the Celebration of the Arts.

The entries are submitted to the Foundation’s Marketing Committee who individually vote for their favorite design.  The artists who create the winning designs are presented a $50 gift card of their choice and have their name attached to the cards.

This year’s winning design for the Celebration of the Arts is Chase.  Chase is a 10^th grade student at Pottstown High School.  For his design he did a pencil sketch of Beauty and the Beast, this year’s District Musical.  He has been doing artwork since he was young and prefers black and white as opposed to color and also prefers pencil work for his sketches. For this design, Chase Googled Beauty and the Beast but also used suggestions from High School Art Teacher and Art Department Chair, Mrs. Beth Yoder. Chase is interested in pursuing a career in forensic where he can use his artistic talent in doing composite work such as reconstructing faces from skulls. He is also looking forward to taking Art Major classes in his junior year and maybe ceramics.  For his efforts, Chase selected an Amazon Gift Card.

The Holiday Card design was created by Pottstown Middle School student Julietta, a seventh grader.  Julietta is not new to this contest as her work was selected last year for the Holiday Card.  Julietta’s inspiration for her design was a book that she read and she remembered children skating on a pond. Her favorite art media is sketch drawing and she too prefers using black and white.  In her spare time she enjoys drawing, specifically eyes and flowers.  In her future, she is hoping to become an interior designer and enjoys playing a game where you build houses.  Julietta select a gift card from TJ Maxx. Ms. Katie Frasch is Julietta’s Art Teacher at the Middle School

The Marketing Committee selects two winning designs from the Elementary Schools for the thank you cards which are mailed to each donor.  This year both winning designs came from Ms. Keri Marini’s art classes at Lincoln Elementary School.

Jaylah, a fourth grade student in Mr. Wagner’s class, was one of the two designs selected.  She stated that her inspiration was that she felt that people all over the world would like to say thank you and be on top of the world.  Her preferred art medium is drawing and in color.  In her free time she likes to ride her bike and play with her older sister.  Her plans for the future is to be an actress or a nurse. She selected an Amazon Gift Card

Rina, another of Mr. Wagner’s fourth grade class member was selected for the thank you card as well.  Rina’s inspiration was the previous year’s submission that Ms. Marini shared with the classes. As she likes all art mediums and supplies, her design represents as many as she could think of. Rina enjoys drawing and even loves to doodle when she is done with her classwork. She prefers to draw faces and animals. In her spare time she enjoys reading graphic novels, drawing, using her tablet and her pets. When asked about what she would like to do in her career, Rina was very specific, she want to teach 2^nd grade in Mrs. Bolonski’s classroom as “she will probably be retired by the time that I can teach.” She selected an Amazon Gift Card

The Foundation thanks all of the students who submitted their designs, all of the art teachers and of course Chase, Julietta, Jaylah and Rina.