Newtown Smile Dentistry and Newtown Pediatric and Special Needs Dentistry celebrated its second annual art contest with a reception on Wednesday, November 19.

The contest was open to Newtown students from pre-K through twelfth grade, with winners selected from four different grade levels: elementary, intermediate, middle school, and high school.

This year’s theme, “Dream in Color,” encouraged students to let their imagination soar and express their dreams on paper. Students could use any materials for their submission, so long as they used a 12” by 16” paper as their canvas. Submissions were reviewed based on creativity and artistic expression.

Many of the student artists, joined by their parents or guardians, gathered at Newtown Smile for the reception Wednesday night, which featured refreshments, a tour of the building, and an awards announcement.

As people started filing in, Newtown Smile Office Coordinator TK excitedly finished putting her last touches in preparing for the event. She said their long-term goal with the contest is to create a lasting network that empowers young artists to imagine, innovate, and express themselves.

Much like last year, the artwork will be featured in Newtown Smile’s 2026 Calendar, with permission given from the student artists. The calendar will be delivered to places throughout the community, including senior centers and special needs facilities.

“This way, people of all ages and backgrounds can enjoy and be inspired by creative young artists,” TK said.

Her husband, Newtown Smile owner Dr Sean Lee, DDS, addressed the crowd and welcomed them to the reception. He said the contest has only gotten bigger since its start last year, with them receiving approximately 19 submissions this year.

“This is only possible because of all the wonderful young artists who participated,” Lee said.

He told the crowd that Newtown Smile primarily started as an adult dental clinic. However, Lee said they always had this vision of doing dental treatments for pediatric patients, particularly those with special needs.

Since special needs children often need to be sedated for dental treatment, he noted, they moved into a bigger space last June to have the equipment needed to conduct safe treatment.

Lee said the reason he brought that up is because, as much as they were interested in doing dentistry for children and special needs folks, life has a lot to do with doing things for the next generation.

He continued, “We want to make sure that our young kids can thrive and express whatever’s on their mind to canvas ... And so we thought, ‘Let’s promote further use of their imagination and creativity.’”

From there, everyone was welcome to roam around the Newtown Smile office. Staff members placed the 19 submissions on display easels throughout the facility’s hallways for everyone’s viewing pleasure. All the while, guests could enjoy food such as pretzel bites, mozzarella sticks, and wraps, along with drinks such as bottled water and flavored sparkling water.

As everyone walked around the room, Newtown Smile Dental Assistant Cindy Carbone could not help but gush about the submissions.

“I can’t even say I only like one; I love them all,” Carbone said. “Every one of them has their own unique charm. I get the goosebumps whenever I look at them.”

Following the tour, everyone returned to the lobby, where Lee announced the contest winners.

The four winners were: kindergartner Stella Jambor with “Dream of an elephant — Meet in the wild,” fourth grader Journey Duda with “In the Stars,” sixth grader Riley McRuiz with “Forest Fairy,” and eleventh grader Eileen Celli with “Painted Dreams.”

The four winners each received a Certificate of Excellence and a scholarship, and all of the artists in attendance received gift boxes and a copy of Newtown Smile’s 2026 Calendar.

Lee emphasized that everyone who submitted their art to the contest is a winner. In addition to being featured in this year’s Newtown Smile calendar, Lee said the artwork will be available for view on their social media, so that people can see it digitally.

“We have all the previous artwork on there too, so it’ll be like a digital collection of everyone’s art,” Lee explained.

To Lee, the best part of the contest was seeing everyone’s artwork.

“Every participant tapped into their imagination in such a cool way,” Lee said. “So seeing it all come together ... has just been really amazing.”

The contest was also a special moment for Justine Inzero, who joined Newtown Smile as a pediatric dentist earlier this September. Experiencing that strong sense of community within the office and seeing it extend to the contest, she said, has been really nice.

“We’re giving kids the opportunity to display their art and show how creative they are to the community,” Inzero said. “I feel like we do a lot in the community — we’ve been to schools, we’ve done community events like the contest; it’s nice being part of a dental office that focuses so much on that.”

Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.