Three elementary school students from La Cañada Unified School District placed first in the state of California for their Reflections Arts entries, and two received awards at the National PTA level. The theme was “What Is Your Story?”
Charlie Matarese from La Cañada Elementary School and Maya Purdy from Palm Crest Elementary School, who first met each other at St. George’s Preschool, won third place at the national level. Matarese submitted a film titled “This Is My Story in Time,” which was a Lego stop-motion movie about a boy who builds a time machine and goes back to the dinosaur age. He brings the dinosaur to the future and learns he is friendly before he returns him.
Purdy submitted a musical composition she wrote and sang titled “My Story,” which is a song about how important her family is to her. Her lyrics emphasized how they support her in both good and bad times.
Peter Tran won first in the state for literature in the Special Artist division for his essay titled “Don’t Be Afraid.”
Since 1969, the Reflections Program has encouraged millions of students from throughout California and across the nation to create works of art. At PTA schools in California, 46,327 students participated in this year’s program. The Reflections Program provides a venue for students to create and be recognized for original works of art based on a student inspired pre-selected theme. It also serves to increase community awareness of how important arts is in education. There are six arts categories: literature, visual art, photography, film, dance and music composition.
