Southmoreland hosts ‘Words and Pictures’ competition

An event called Words and Pictures was held for the first time at the Southmoreland High School auditorium March 8. Host Mrs. Jenna Hixson, who got the idea from a film of the same name, hopes to make the competition an annual event.

“I was incredibly happy with both the contestants and the volunteers.” said Mrs. Hixson. “I can’t wait to watch ‘words’ win (over pictures) year after year.”

The event was inspired by a movie of the same name, and every student who participated, as well as those who helped with the event, viewed the movie.

“I created the event because the movie inspired me so much I couldn’t let it end after just two hours,” said Mrs. Hixson. “I had to do more with it.”

Sophomore Olivia Price assisted in hosting the event, along with several other students who dressed up like famous authors and artists throughout history.

“I didn’t dress like anyone, but everyone who did looked so good,” said Price. “Alex Busato made a great Bob Ross, and I loved getting to see all the artwork even though I didn’t have time to read many of the stories.”

Students had two hours to produce either a picture or a piece of writing that depicted a theme given to them. This years theme was “Discovery.”

“I wanted the theme to be something ambiguous that they could really run with,” said Mrs. Hixson. “It could be interpreted different ways, such as self-discovery or scientific discovery. When I came up with five similar words, some of my peers helped me narrow it down to this one.”

Several students from Southmoreland participated in the event, and several helped to host. Among those was sophomore Larisa Lombardo who dressed up as Michelangelo of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and delivered a movie line on stage to the participants.

“The ninja turtles are named after artists, so I thought it would be fun to dress up as them,” said Lombardo. “My line was something like ‘I think art is more important because it influences pop culture, like me!’”

Art teacher Mrs. Elizabeth Goodman helped host the event as well and was very impressed by all the young artists.

“Art takes time, so I wish the students would have had more than two hours to create their piece,” said Mrs. Goodman. “But overall I thought it was a success, and the students all came up with creative and thoughtful projects in both the art and writing categories.”

Having both an art and writing portion of the event allowed students with different talents to participate and show their skill set.

“I thought it was really nice that we got to combine the different curricular activities,” said Mrs. Goodman. “It was good to see how differently the kids expressed themselves through art and writing.”

A panel of five judges – including Dr. John Molnar, Southmoreland  superintendent – scored the submissions to decide which piece best conveyed the theme of discovery. The first place winning team was Jeremy Blinker and Caitlyn Allen from Yough,  while two teams tied for second place included Jade Gray, Hannah Bach and Kyla Denitti of Yough and Hunter Stecko of Norwin. Winners received awards made by ALex Busato, a Southmoreland senior.  All three winning submissions were of the writing variety.

“I was very inspired by some of the drawings and paintings.” said Mrs. Hixson. “But it was no surprise to me that it was the words of the poems and stories that made me want to write and gave me a true emotional connection to the topic.”

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