Appreciating A Different Kind Of Hero

By Larissa Lytwyn

Eight students from Middle Gate Elementary School were recently recognized for their artistic achievement in the national PTA’s annual Reflections contest. 

This year’s theme, “A Different Kind of Hero,” challenged students in preschool through grade 12 to recognize the people, places, and even animals that can elicit a positive change in one’s life or community.

Categories include photography, literature, musical composition, and visual arts. The eight local winners, Katelyn Zimmerman, Christian Mather, Jacob Harper, Benjamin Galassi, Brittany Watson, Yossi Kohrman-Glaser, Rebecca Vodola, and Conrad Reilly, will now progress to the state judging level.

The top winners will be nationally recognized through three Awards of Excellence and five Awards of Merit in each grade division for each of the program’s four categories.

One Outstanding Interpretation award is selected from each category’s Awards of Excellence winners across the grades.

In the local literature division, Middle Gate fourth grader Christian Mather profiled Newtown High School soccer player Marcus Tracy.

“I’m a soccer player myself, and I think Marcus is a great role model!” said Christian. “I interviewed him about his experiences playing soccer, as well as some personal information about him.”

In the photography category, fourth grader Benjamin Galassi did a photomontage of his pet hermit crabs.

“I think [hermit] crabs are interesting in the way they interact with each other,” he said. “They have communities. The way they live is very practical, too, in that they carry their homes on their backs through their shells. I really like having them.”

In the music division, second grader Brittany Watson talked about being inspired by her dog, Rhett, who has since passed away.

“Rhett was a wonderful dog,” she said. “Now we have another dog named Max.”

Fourth grader Yossi Kohrman-Glaser is a past National Award of Excellence winner for his success in musical composition.

His idea for his latest award-winning submission, an instrumental tribute to his cat Pussy Willow, came to him one day when he was sprawled out in his bedroom one day, he said, casually composing.

“I was thinking of ideas and I just looked at Pussy Willow and became inspired,” he said.

In the visual arts category, third grader Rebecca Vodola paid tribute to her personal heroes, teachers. Her work consists of a grammatically problematic sentence she corrected through editing marks she had learned in class.

First grader Conrad Reilly drew a picture of himself reading in the library. “I love the library,” he said. He believes librarians, as well as books themselves, can serve us as heroes. “My favorite kind of books are fiction,” he said.

The Awards of Excellence and Awards of Merit will be announced this spring.

For more information on the Reflections Program, visit www.pta.org.