Bexhill students design stunning peace posters

They were taking part in an annual competition held by Bexhill Lions Club has organised the Lions, challenging pupils from local junior and senior schools to design an international peace poster.

Competition Organiser Stella Harris explained: "Since 1988 Lions Clubs around the world have been sponsoring this very special art competition. Creating peace posters gives children the opportunity to express their thoughts and feelings about peace in an imaginative and creative way. The competition has been running for over 30 years with a different theme each year and now around 600,000 children from nearly 100 countries participate. Last year the theme was ‘Peace Without Limits’.”

The Club was invited to an assembly at St Richard's Catholic College to announce their results. Local Lions were joined by the S.E England District Governor Steve Carley and Competitions Officer Baldev Bahra.

The School winner was Amelia Carter who received a voucher, medal and certificate. Coming a close second was Amishrily Ramprasad. Runners up were Danny Doherty, Olivia Zietal, Sophie de Caires, and Xavier Leather.

The local school winners are entered into the Lions' South East England District competition. Amelia also won this competition and was presented with a certificate and voucher. Her poster was then entered into the National competition, where it was awarded third place.

Bexhill Lions also attended a Year 9 assembly at Bexhill Academy to announce their results. The winner was Alfie Pelling who created a beautiful poster of forest animals He said that spending time with animals gave him a real sense of peace. He received a voucher, medal and certificate from the Club. Runners up were Maya Wardle and Aida Ballinger. Alfie was also awarded 3rd prize in the district competition and received a certificate and a voucher.

Lion President June Hough said: "The standard of entries has been really high and continues the growing reputation of Bexhill for outstanding creative talent at both Senior and Junior schools level. This prestigious art competition also encourages the children to talk about the theme and the issues around it. I would also like to thank the schools for their tremendous support of the competition and all the pupils who spend so much time designing the amazing posters."

Stella added "The quality of work never fails to impress and I am pleased to announce that the two winning posters are displayed on the north end of the Footbridge Gallery so that they can be enjoyed by everybody. We are very grateful to Diana Birch for arranging this."

If you are interested to learn more about the Lions or would like to chat about membership visit www.bexhill-lions.org.uk or call Lion Rick on 0845 833 9591.