Winning students of poster contest to be honored at awards ceremony

LISBON

The Knights of Columbus Columbiana County Chapter and the Columbiana County Educational Service Center are sponsoring the 5th Annual Substance Abuse Awareness Poster Contest awards ceremony at 7 p.m. Friday in the cafetorium at Columbiana County Career and Technical Center, 9364 state Route 45.

Judge Carol Robb will be the guest speaker.

The poster contest was available to all Columbiana County schools through the service center and was open to students ages 8 to 14.

The 28 winning entries at the local (school) level were then judged at the county level at CCESC by health educators, police, D.A.R.E. officers and art teachers.

Those four winning students, who will receive their awards, trophies and certificates at the awards ceremony, will advance to the state level.

All local winners, who were invited to attend the ceremony along with their parents and participating teachers, will receive certificates for competing in the contest at the ceremony.

The winners at the state level will advance to the national, then international level.

The winning entries at the top level will be used for a series of anti-substance-abuse posters. The artists receive creative credit, and the posters are distributed throughout the countries that have a K. of C. presence.

More than 5,000 students have participated since the program began.

The K. of C., along with the CCESC, hope to reach all county children ages 8 to 14 and implement or develop programs to help them resist peer pressure to use alcohol and drugs.

The Knights of Columbus is an international Catholic family fraternal service organization with more than 1.7 million members in more than 12,000 councils. Last year, K. of C. members and their families donated 55 million volunteer hours and $111 million to charitable and benevolent causes.