By BETTE FITZGERALD
Tagan Crowe poses with his acrylic painting "Herd" which took a 1st place ribbon at last month's N.C. State Junior Beta Convention. (Photos courtesy of Bette Fitzgerald/CMS)
GREENSBORO – On Super Bowl Sunday, some of the most talented eighth grade students from Cherokee Middle School turned off their televisions and headed to Greensboro to participate in academic and art competitions with more than 3,000 middle students from over 100 schools across North Carolina at the annual State Junior Beta Convention.
The convention theme was “Beta…A Circle of Winners” to promote the National Junior Beta Convention in Louisville, Kentucky. The CMS banner, designed by Chicoah Ledford and Dylan Thompson won a first place trophy. The banner had a southwestern Native American feel to it with leather horses, machine quilting and “2010” done in beadwork.
Jeremy Saunooke took a 1st place ribbon for his hand-carved spoons.
Tagan Crowe took home a first place ribbon for his acrylic painting “Herd” which shows horses moving through a forest. Jeremy Saunooke placed first in woodworking with two hand-carved spoons and BrayDe Brady won 2nd for an embroidery pieces on a painted canvas depicting an arctic scene complete with a mother and baby penguin. The multiple art ribbons earned CMS a second place trophy for the Art Sweepstakes.
The six students who received ribbons are invited to attend and compete at the National Junior Beta Club Convention in Louisville, Kentucky this summer, June 26-29. In recent years CMS has won at nationals twice. In 2008, Meshay Long won 1st place in oil pastels and Felicia Owle took 2nd place in oil painting and last year Devyn Smith took 3rd place in oil pastels.
The following students participated in the various competition categories listed:
ART: Wreath (Curtis Price, Courtney George, Corey Owle), Photography (Taran Swimmer, Kayla Bradley), Sketching (Tagan Crowe), Oil Pastels (Tagan Crowe), Watercolor (Tagan Crowe), Acrylic Painting (Tagan Crowe), Sculpture (Taran Swimmer), Embroidery (BrayDe Brady), cross-stitch (Ashley Mahan), Knitting/crochet (Vanessa Caldwell), Woodworking (Jeremy Saunooke), Jewelry (Justin Buchanan).
CATEGORY EVENTS: T-Shirt Design (Justin Buchanan, Chicoah Ledford, Damon Taylor, Hunter Lambert, Silas Reed-Littlejohn, Tagan Crowe), Scrapbook (Jaylen Welch, Kayla Bradley, Larissa Martinez, Avery Mintz and Monique Paul), Small Group Talent (Grass Dancing by Chebon Postoak, Russell Bigmeat, Darius Thompson, and Dylan Thompson), Poster Design (Taran Swimmer, Monique Paul, Avery Mintz), Living Literature where students freeze in costume to depict a scene from a book (The Lorax by Jeremy Saunooke, Levi Swearengin, Damon Taylor, Wade Wolfe, Justin Buchanan, and Tagan Crowe).
ACADEMICS: Power Point Presentation (Jessica Lambert and Priscilla Squirrell), Speech (Stevi Sutton), Math Test (Kenzie Garcia), Science Test (Watson Harlan), Social Studies Test (Hunter Lambert) and Leadership Workshops (Vanessa Caldwell, BraDe Brady, Anna Cline, and Taylor Johnson), Quiz Bowl Team (EJ Carroll, Silas Reed-Littlejohn, Brent Gunter, and Jalon Lossiah).
CMS Beta officials related, “This valuable leadership event was made possible by support from Cherokee Central School Board and Gear Up. We would like to thank the students, their families, teachers, and the administration for helping to make this event such a success. We appreciate the art instruction from Reba Elders, leading to such strong entries in the art categories. The beta banners will be framed for a permanent display of student art in the beautiful new school building.”
Bette is the Cherokee Middle School Beta Sponsor.
