Art contest winners announced

The Kiwanis Club of Kailua-Kona recently hosted its third semi-annual art contest for the Kealakehe Intermediate School’s Art program.

Each semester ends with a contest that culminates the seven elements of art that they learned explicitly during their art class. The theme for the contest is based on emphasizing Hawaiian words. This semester the theme was “Kiwanis Means Kokua” (to help) and these words had to be visible on the students’ work.

The judging was held on Dec. 14, 2021 with the judges being members of Kiwanis as well as teachers and staff of KIS. There were over 100 entries and the top 30 were passed on to the judges where generous cash prizes.

The first place award and $75 went to Hadassah Luani Flores; second place and $60 to Ana Tamaline Beka; third place and $50 to Jedro Loeak; fourth place and $35 to Jade Esparsen; and fifth place and $25 to Salotelatu Hoponao.

A private donor from the Kiwanis club donated an additional $100 to award teacher picks of the five most creative and artistic designs. Receiving $20 prizes were Hi’i Bunghanoy-Aiu, Tehani Cancino, Giselle Minez-Cruz, Alice Orlando, and Mia Thennes.

“This competition was the students final project for their art class. They love this project, and the added element of a competition gives it extra attention and drives students to do their very best work. All of the entries were magnificent!” said Kealakehe Intermediate School Art Teacher Starr Anastasio.