In celebration of its 50th anniversary, the Stanly County Arts Council partnered with Stanly County Schools and conducted a bookmark contest for all grade levels.

The design was to reflect the arts: visual arts, music, dance, and/or theatre. The bookmark entries were judged on originality, design and reproducibility. Each elementary grade level had a winner and five honorable mentions, middle school had two winners and the high school level had three winners.

The winning bookmarks will be distributed to all public schools and public libraries in Stanly County throughout April and May.

Each winning bookmark was made into a banner and another banner shows all the honorable mentions bookmarks. These banners are on display at the Stanly County History Center’s exhibit: “50 Years of Cultivating Creativity.”

This exhibit is free and open to the public 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the last Saturday of each month. This exhibit will be available through Labor Day.

Elementary winners were:

• Kindergarten: Brecken Autry of Endy Elementary; honorable mentions: Juniper Ridenhour (Richfield), Blakely Chandler (Richfield), Mackenzie Chisholm (Oakboro Choice STEM), Lilly Jones (Oakboro Choice STEM), JT Thompson (Oakboro Choice STEM);

• First Grade: Oli Yang of Aquadale Elementary; honorable mentions: Roman Burris (Aquadale), Ezra Todd (Aquadale), Talia Burgess (Oakboro Choice STEM), Ava Belsinger (East Albemarle), Riley (Stanfield);

• Second Grade: Lillian Brower of Stanfield Elementary; honorable mentions: Charlotte Surratt (Oakboro Choice STEM), Seth Cook (Aquadale), Brooklyn Bennett (Richfield), Lucas Foster (Oakboro Choice STEM), Sofia Garcia Agvilar (Stanfield);

• Third Grade: Nyla Morton Hatley of Aquadale Elementary; honorable mentions: Haven Furr (Aquadale), Harper Huneycutt (Aquadale), Makayla Allen (Millingport), Morgan Lisenby (Endy), Ny’anna Thomas (Endy);

• Fourth Grade: Laynee Wade of Endy Elementary; honorable mentions: Maddie Long (Richfield), Olivia Kesegich (Locust), Alyvia Mease (Aquadale), Serenity Fesperman (Badin), Vaughn Montroy (Badin); and

• Fifth Grade: Easton Emery of Richfield Elementary; honorable mentions: Braylee Musser (Badin), Arthur Lor (Badin), Eli Dick (Richfield), Landry Merritt (Stanfield), Piper Pressley (Stanfield);

Middle school winners were: Nolan Lanham, eighth grader at West Stanly Middle School; and Harper Whitley, sixth grader at West Stanly Middle School.

High school winners were: Michelle Starnes, 11th grader at Albemarle High School; Emily Baucom, 11th grader at West Stanly High School; and Hailey Sexton, 11th grader at West Stanly High School.

Bookmark winners Nolan Lanham, Michelle Starnes and Lillian Brower were honored for their efforts at the museum display opening March 27. (Photo by CHARLES CURCIO/staff)