Kiwanis music, art winners take home scholarship money

ALBANY — Eight contestants took home a total of $15,000 in scholarships recently, as the Kiwanis Club of Dougherty County and other clubs in Division 5 of the Georgia Kiwanis District hosted and sponsored the statewide Art & Music Showcase for 2016.

Art contest judges Jamye Ivey, Steve Hinton and Craig Hawkins reviewed more than 90 pieces of artwork before making decisions that were revealed at the conclusion of the music portion of the showcase. The art winners were:

Best of Show – 1st Place, $3,500 scholarship – Abigail Apter, sophomore, Landmark Christian School; 2nd place, Lesley Chang, senior, North Gwinnett High School; 3rd place, Hadden Kelley, senior, Deerfield-Windsor School; 4th place, Kelsey Archer, junior, Lassiter High School.

12th Grade – 1st place: Brick Nelson, Jones County High School; 2nd place: Lindsay Carr, North Gwinnett High School; 3rd place: Madeline Butler, Lakeview Academy.

11th Grade – 1st place: Gunhee Chang, North Gwinnett High School; 2nd place: Amelia Sims, Campbell High School; 3rd place: Lily K. Smith, Northgate High School.

10th Grade – 1st place, Grace Murphy, Lassiter High School; 2nd place, Monica Chang, North Gwinnett High School; 3rd place, Kaiya Plagenhoef, Walton High School.

9th Grade – 1st place, Nicole Lee, North Gwinnett High School; 2nd place, Rae-Lynn Wallace, McEachern High School; 3rd place, Ansley Rowland, Jones County High School.

8th Grade – 1st place, Brittni Conger, Tiftarea Academy; 2nd place, Edjenee Corbin, Thomas County Middle School; 3rd place, Kimmi Dulaney, The Da Vinci Academy.

7th Grade – 1st place, Nykeria Martin, Albany Middle School; 2nd place, Sarah Dean, Evans Middle School; 3rd place, Holden Turner, The Da Vinci Academy.

6th Grade – 1st place, Rock Lin, Rising Starr Middle School; 2nd place, Whitney Wallace, Evans Middle School; 3rd place, Kariana Colon, Thomas County Middle School.

The Georgia District Kiwanis Foundation provided the scholarship funds to “Best of Show” finishers: $7,500 for each portion ($3,500 first place, $2,500 second place, $1,000 third place, $500 fourth place). First-, second-, and third-place finishers in each grade level were presented trophies, and all contestants in the showcase earned a medallion.

The music portion of the showcase, emceed by Ben Lockett and Doug Lorber of the Dougherty County Kiwanis Club, featured 19 acts that were judged by Claire Fox Hillard, Marcia Hood and Mark Laughlin, two-time Grammy-nominated music educator and Associate Professor of Music at Georgia Southwestern University. Each contestant had a four-minute window in which to complete their performance.

Contestants had to first compete and win in their local musical competitions to advance to the districtwide contest.

The Music Showcase winners were:

1st Place – Blair Lipham, Carrollton High School

2nd Place – Joie Zhou, McIntosh High School

3rd Place – Robert Solomon, Home School

4th Place – Gavin Chen, The Heritage School

Major sponsors of the showcase were the Dougherty County Kiwanis Club, Joe DeBose Insurance (Smyrna Kiwanis Club), Ken Rodd/Rodd Consulting LLC and Parker Security. Awards sponsors were Elva Whitlock, Kiwanis of Fairfield Plantation, and the Albany Golden K Kiwanis Club.

Albany will host the Art & Music Showcase again next year in the final leg of a three-year commitment the Kiwanis Club of Dougherty County made to the event. This year’s Art & Music Showcase co-chairs were Ken Rodd and Kristin Caso of the Kiwanis Club of Dougherty County and Leah Sandbach of the Albany Kiwanis Club.