Last month, Quinn Andrews was working on a project in her middle school art class, when she was surprised by a bouquet of flowers and balloons. It wasn’t her birthday, and it wasn’t an invitation to a prom. The sixth-grader had just won a countywide poster contest. The school administrators and the contest coordinator were responsible for the surprise.
Quinn was the grand prize winner of the 28th Annual Countywide Substance Abuse Prevention Poster Contest, sponsored by the Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Council of Orange County.
“It didn’t seem very real at first,” Andrews said. “I was really surprised.” Her classmates were also surprised, but not as much as she was. “Everyone looked at me funny,” she said.
Over 1,000 posters were submitted to the Goshen office in early February and 80 winners were selected. Other Cornwall winners were Lily Sones (first) and Mariah Brooks (third) in the grades 4-6 competition, and Genevieve Fayo and Lindsay Ward who received honorable mention in the same age group.
All will be publicly recognized by the council and local dignitaries at an awards ceremony at 10 a.m. on Friday, May 8, at SUNY Orange in Newburgh.
In an act of generosity, Andrews shared a flower with each of the other district winners.
“I just thought they needed credit for what they did too,” she said.
This year’s theme was “Life is an Adventure. Explore it Drug and Alcohol Free!” Andrews’ poster depicts a mountain climber and a hand holding a magnifying glass. The top of the poster reads “Life is an Adventure. Explore it” and the rest of the theme is situated under the magnifying glass.
Andrews chose to use three mediums for her poster: acrylics, water colors, and colored pencils. Her mother, an artist, showed her different ways to use each.
The most difficult part about using various mediums was using water colors.
“The paper started to curl, so we had to wait for it to dry,” Andrews said. “We put books on top of it to flatten it down.”
Andrews has been interested in art for as long as she can remember. Last year she won an in-school diversity poster contest. And she also won a contest to design the cover of the winter concert program cover.
For winning the poster contest, Andrews was awarded $200, which she said she’ll likely save until she comes across something she wants to buy.
As a grand prize winner, Andrews was also entered as a nominee for a County Executive Youth Award. Again she was named winner in the Outstanding Citizenship and Leadership category.
