My Life as a Poster Boy!

   My invitation came by email.
   The Lackawanna County Office on Drugs
and Alcohol asked me to help with a project
that's designed to keep people safe...especially
during the holidays!
    Each year the agency asks kids throughout
the county to draw posters that encourage
people to stay away from drugs and alcohol.
    The best poster is used on billboards and
buttons distributed at Christmas. There's
already a long collection of those buttons
from previous year's winners!
    As you probably know I'm a tad too old to
enter the competition.
    That's OK because my artistic ability is
pretty much limited to stick figures and paint
by numbers. Come to think of it I even got
a few of those numbers wrong.
     But I was asked to be one of the Judges for
this year's contest.
     I immediately accepted. After all....what's
a couple of minutes to pick out a nice poster?
     Except.........in the High School category
alone there were well over 100 entries!
     A whole lot of others had already been
dropped by the agency because they varied in
some way from the set of written rules.
     My fellow judges and I found them set
out on and all around a huge table in one of
the agency's offices.
     Others found similar collections set out
elsewhere for the Elementary school entries!
     Half the kids in the county must have made
posters!
     And the real "problem" was that most of
them were very good!
     This wasn't going to be as "easy" as we
thought!
      We came up with the best system we could,
eliminating one at a time, all the while searching
for that one with a scene and message that just
sort of leaped out at us.
       Say what you will about the "younger
generation." Their imagination and creativity
produced over a hundred entries that were all
better than my best stick figures!
       We ended up with a first, second, and
third place, two Honorable Mentions, and 15
more that are so good they just have to be
recognized for their efforts.
         I'm including a photo of the material
we found waiting for us.
         You'll have to wait for the official
announcement of the winners although, in
reality, I believe all of those who made the
effort can consider themselves winners!
          Guess I should have paid more
attention in Art Class!
          Hope you appreciate the work of
today's kids and that all your NEWS is good!