Heritage center will host special poster contest
Call it Independence Day. Call it the 4th of July. Whatever your preference, this year’s summer celebration will be one the biggest ones yet for our country.
But it’s not just the USA as a whole that will celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday. There is plenty going on at the local level as well.
And one community celebration in these parts will be Wednesday at the Wheel Across Prairie Heritage Center when patriotic-themed posters from local students will be put on display for all to see.
“It ties in with the 250th anniversary of the United States,” said Jon Wendorff, executive director of the heritage center. “The Southwest Minnesota Arts Council had a grant program where you could get the tile and each person would paint a tile … but we really didn’t know what we really didn’t know what we were going to end up with — maybe a bunch of nonpainted tiles?” The event will be at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 27, in the Main Barn at the heritage center. Lingen Dairy will be on hand to serve up cold treats.
According to Wendorff, it was Cookie Cooreman who came up with the poster contest idea, similar to what the Tracy Lions Club does with its Peace Posters, where students pattern their art after a certain theme.
“We took it to all three (Tracy) schools, talked to the teachers, explained it to the kids,” Wendorff said. “They had something like a week to do it, and then Cookie collected them all.”
Cooreman, Wendorff and Amy Foster went through each poster as a “first cut,” and then brought in Jesse James and Seth Schmidt to pick the final winners.
“It was difficult for all of us, because there are some really good artists out there,” Wendorff said.
The winners will receive a cash price.
