Lions Club sponsors poster contest

Crime, war, terrorism…sometimes the world is not a particularly peaceful place. But as the earth’s leaders do what they can to address all the chaos, individual organizations are doing their own work to promote peace. This year, the International Association of Lions Clubs is sponsoring a Peace Poster Contest. The competition gives children between the ages of eleven and thirteen an opportunity to illustrate their own vision of peace. Today, the Belize City Lions Club encouraged students to participate in the local and international competition.

Dr. Christopher Bennett, Chairman, Peace Poster Contest

“The whole idea behind the contest is to have the students, eleven to thirteen years old, think in terms of the importance of peace and what peace means to the them; not only internationally, but within their own country. And so this year, the Belize City Lions Club and Lion Clubs in other parts of Belize are sponsoring this Peace Poster Contest. And even though our prize is kind of nominal with a hundred and fifty dollars for first and one hundred for the second, what is important is that we want for them to compete internationally and the winners from each of these clubs will then compete with over three hundred thousand students, all over the world, eleven to thirteen years old and then they can win some really good prizes. In fact, the grand prize is five thousand dollars Belize for the first place winner and then that winner will also get the chance to go to the United Nations with two family members. And then we have merit awards of a thousand dollars Belize for twenty-three other participants.

And so we know that in Belize we have a lot of talented artists, so we are encouraging the kids to participate, to think of the theme this year, which is “Dream of Peace” and to see whether Belize can be part of that twenty-three or so winners.”

Jacqueline Woods

“One person, who has been encouraging the children to take part in the competition is our very own Belizean artist, Charlie Chavannes. What has that response been like?”

Dr. Christopher Bennett

“Well, I think it has been very good and just the presence of Charlie in the schools motivates the kids to participate. And so we are hoping that we will have some very good entries, and we encourage the kids to participate and think of peace not only in Belize but worldwide.”

The theme of the contest is Dream of Peace. Deadline for entries is October thirty-first. If you are interested in taking part, please call 223-0404 for more information.