By Mary-Justine Lanyon
When Nyron McLean, the 2025-2026 governor of Rotary District 5330, became aware of the Art for Peace contest sponsored by a neighboring Rotary district, he decided to hold a similar contest in his own district.
Nineteen students participated in the Art for Peace contest at the Crestline site.
District Governor McLean formed a committee, chaired by Linda White, a member of the Corona Rotary Club; that committee (to which he appointed this reporter) formulated the rules for the contest and invited the clubs within District 5330 to participate.
The challenge was for students to create artwork – paintings, photographs, collages – that reflect this year’s theme: Mediation, a Tool for Peace.
The three Rim-area Rotary clubs – Crestline-Lake Gregory, Lake Arrowhead and Mountain Sunrise – decided to collaborate on the contest. They took that collaboration one step further by partnering with the Mountain Communities Boys & Girls Club, inviting the Crestline and Lake Arrowhead sites to participate.
On Nov. 12 and 13, the Rotary Clubs and the Boys & Girls Club held art shows at the two sites. As the judges deliberated, the students enjoyed some pizza.
The three judges – Linda Harlan White (no relation to the committee chair), Rebecca Maloof and Jo Robinson, all members of the Mountain Arts Network – admitted it was incredibly hard to choose the first, second and third-place winners in the TK-second grade and third-fifth grade groups. But, after careful deliberation, they announced their decisions.
At the Lake Arrowhead site, the children were so excited they were cheering and jumping up and down. In the TK-second grade group, third place went to Jolene, second to Ryder and first to Cadence. The three girls were all smiles as they held hands after being awarded their certificates.
In the third-fifth grade group, third place was awarded to Milana, second to Camila and first to Darcy.
At the Crestline site, in the TK-second grade group, third place went to Chloe, second to Catalina and first to Elijah. In the third-fifth grade group, third place was awarded to Haley, second to Erin and first to Colton. Unfortunately, many of the winning students had left prior to the awards being announced.
The two directors – Sue-Ellen Uzal at Lake Arrowhead and Jessica Sanchez at Crestline – had used prompts to help the students understand the concept of mediation. Uzal showed her club members a video in which two children want the same orange. After talking about what they actually wanted, they discovered the boy only wanted the rind while the girl wanted the fruit inside.
The first-place winners in each age group from each Boys & Girls site have been submitted to the District 5330-level contest. That judging will take place on Dec. 6. Winners will be announced on the District 5330 website on Dec. 8 and will be displayed at the 36th annual Garbis Der-Yeghian Peace Conference on Jan. 24 at the Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda.
The students who created the winning artwork at the district level will be invited to the peace conference, where they will be presented with their cash prizes.
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