Congratulations to The Grand Old 4th of July Poster Contest Winner
For the third year in a row, the Bainbridge Island Chamber of 
Commerce has held its poster contest for the island’s Grand Old 4th of July celebration (this celebration is in its 52nd year, and is the largest community event on the island). Contestants must be students from any of our public and private elementary, middle or high schools, and the winner is awarded a $1,000.00 scholarship, sponsored by Puget Sound Energy.
This year the theme of the poster contest was: “The land of the free and the home of the ______”. The Chamber received several wonderfully creative entries, and although they were all fantastic, there could only be one winner.
Meet Addi Herb, a 7th grader at Madrona School, who after seeing the poster contest advertisement, set to work on her submission. Addi spent several weeks creating her poster, using water color and felt-tip pens. Her inspiration was drawn from all things “Bainbridge Island”; Frog Rock, the ferry, our gorgeous trees and water, and of course, the Stars and Stripes.
With the poster complete, Addi set off to submit it…that’s when a “comedy of errors” began…Addi and her mom, Aimee, had forgotten to look at the actual contest rules, and once they did, they realized they had a few major problems. The first problem was the size of Addi’s artwork, it was much larger than the rules specified. Second was the shape, the contest rules specified that it was to be a true square, Addi’s piece was a rectangle. Third, her piece hadn’t been created on the specified card stock. If I’d been Addi, I probably would have sighed deeply, been a bit bummed out, and given up. Not Addi though, she got to work making things right. Her first order of business was to modify the poster so that it was square, she added a strip of blue to the top and bottom and adorned it with white stars, a perfect addition for a 4th of July poster. She then took the original to a print shop and had it shrunk down and recreated onto card stock (she submitted both the original and the rule specific version). Addi also hadn’t realized there was a theme involved in the contest, but that worked out too, because her piece became, “The land of the free and the home of Bainbridge Island, WA”.
Addi is no stranger to her artwork being displayed, she’s done post cards for charitable events, such as PAWS.
When she’s not at school or creating beautiful art work, she’s learning aerial circus arts, or hiking through the island forests and beaches.
Congratulations Addi!
Images provided by The Bainbridge Island Chamber of Commerce. Photo of framed poster by Douglas Rauh. Addi Herb postcard photos provided by Addi Herb.
