On Thursday, December 13th the 2012-13 PTA Reflections Competition came to a conclusion at Beverly. Families of 29 extremely creative students came to the Media Center to celebrate their accomplishments. This Beverly All-Star event included Mrs. Jamii Hitchcock, Mr. Tony Fink, the PTA President, Mrs. Nicole Egdell in addition to the students and their families! All the submissions were on display, awards were given and a few cookies were eaten too.

For those of you new to Reflections, it is a National PTA sponsored creative competition that encourages kids from K-12 to submit entries in six categories: Music Composition, Dance Choreography, Film Production, Literature, Visual Arts and Photography. All entries must be inspired by the year's theme. This year the theme was "The Magic of a Moment."

The theme surely did inspire! Kids shared moments that were special to them in lots of unique ways. Some kids shared a first like eating candy, riding a horse, bowling or petting their cat. Many kids were inspired by nature's vibrant fall colors, lakes, unique animals and flowers. And not surprisingly, kids shared magical moments they had with family like birthday wishes, sports victories and vacations to warm places. These entries were all showcased during the Reflections Art Show held during the week of conferences. Hopefully you had a chance to appreciate their efforts. 

At the reception, all participating students were recognized and celebrated, however 9 out of 46 submissions were chosen to move further in competition at the state level. The students selected to proudly represent Beverly are:

Grace Hupp, Visual Arts "A-Finals"

Piper Mclaren, Visual Arts "The Fireworks"

Elliot Mee, Photography "My Sister"

Ella Mush, Photography "Falll"

Isabella Parker, Dance Choreography "The Spell to Dance"

Parker Reed, Special Artist "Autism"

Eric Ruprich, Visual Arts "Fish On!"

Gavin Zacharias, Visual Arts "The Snow Fox"

Megan Zacharias, Photography "Baseball"

There were also two new awards this year, including the Student Choice award and Beverly Bobcat award. The Student Choice award was voted on by over 60 students, but it still ended up in a tie! The kids chose Ellie Ruprich's photo "Weeeeee!" and Wobi Antonielli's "Wedding Magic" as their favorites. The Beverly Bobcat Award went to Megan Zacharias for participating in the Reflections competition multiple years, in multiple categories. This year Megan submitted a story, a painting and photograph! She really goes above and beyond...That's sooooo Bobcat! 

Next year's 2013-14 theme "Believe, Dream, Inspire!" was also announced. Make sure to get your student thinking about what they can create. Good news is that we are also already starting to think about next year's competition. In fact, Mr. Fink has announced that we will start with a student workshop this May. We will truly kick-off this competition next fall when school starts. Please look to the Beverly Banner Blog and Jamii Hitchcock's Principal E-mails for any key dates. 

Special huge shout outs go to: The Beverly PTA, Jamii Hitchcock, Tony Fink, Teri Cudnohufsky, Susan Arslanian, Marybeth MacCallum, Faye Gorback, Janice Hausman, the Beverly Custodial Staff (Becky and Danny!), Bill Mclaren, Seaholm High School, the inspiring Beverly Teaching Staff and, of course, your amazing kids!