Neal Communities partners with Williams Elementary on art contest
Neal Communities recently partnered with Annie Lucy Williams Elementary School in Parrish for its annual “My Favorite Home Art Contest.”
“What a wonderful opportunity to partner with a local business and support art in our school,” said Connie Dixon, principal of Williams Elementary School. “The contest was a way to see the students’ creativity drawing their favorite homes using different mediums, and they really loved it. I am so proud of our students.”
Neal Communities donated $1,500 to the school’s art program at the event.
“We are extremely thankful to Neal Communities for its generous donation, which we will use toward the purchase of printing supplies, clay, tiles and kiln shelves,” said Nancy Seagle, art teacher at Williams Elementary. “Our students thoroughly enjoyed exploring different art mediums per grade level, and it was a nice way to combine that with our existing art curriculum for the beginning of the school year. We thank Neal Communities for the opportunity.”
All students in grades kindergarten through fifth grade participated in the contest. The kindergarten students used watercolor and first-grade students worked with oil pastels on colored paper. Second-graders used marker, third-graders worked with paper collage and fourth-graders utilized metallic pens on black paper. Fifth-grade students made charcoal sketches.
“For our entire team, this is one of our favorite events each year,” said Pat Neal, CEO and chairman of the board at Neal Communities. “We are proud to celebrate student art and education, and for 18 years, this contest has been an annual highlight for me both personally and professionally. We are thankful to the team at Williams Elementary for welcoming us into their school and are continually amazed at the creativity exhibited in the student masterpieces.”
Grade-level winners:
- Kindergarten – Elijah Lopes;
- First grade – Brendan Ott;
- Second grade – Sophia Murphy;
- Third grade – Charli Waldrip;
- Fourth grade – Baylee Carpenter;
- Fifth grade – Jai Li Mongeau.
Judges included Diana Greene, Manatee County School superintendent; Gina Messenger, Manatee County School Board member; Sally Tibbets, district director for Congressman Vern Buchanan; and Gee Dee Kerr, executive director for State Representative Joe Gruters. Neal team members from marketing, sales, purchasing and accounting joined them.
The Neal team selects two overall winners and those students’ artwork will adorn the cover of the 2017 holiday cards for Neal Communities and Neal Signature Homes.
This story was originally published November 16, 2017 at 5:06 PM with the headline "Neal Communities partners with Williams Elementary on art contest."