Virginia Beach Middle School students earned top awards in the 2014 Elie Wiesel Visual Arts Competition. The United Jewish Federation of Tidewater and the Tidewater Jewish Foundation sponsor the annual competition. Every year, the Holocaust Commission invites middle and high school students (grades 6-12) to participate in writing and visual arts competitions named in Wiesel\u2019s honor. The competitions take place in the winter, and guide students in their exploration of moral courage, the dangers of prejudice, peer pressure, unthinking obedience to authority and indifference.<\/p>\n
Student winners receive cash prizes, and classroom teachers who submit a minimum number of student entries, regardless of awards, will receive a set of Holocaust related books for their classrooms or a gift certificate for art supplies. Winners are honored and their entries are shared at the annual Yom Hashoah program in the spring. Winning and notable art entries themselves are also displayed in a gallery exhibit at the Chrysler Museum of Art, the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, the Meyera C. Oberndorf Virginia Beach Central Library, or other prominent local art venue.<\/p>\n
The competitions are underwritten by the Simon Family Foundation and Towne Bank.<\/p>\n
Junior Division<\/p>\n
First Place Junior Multimedia
\nJoseph Geheren, Jaden Busching \u2013 eighth-grade
\nVirginia Beach Middle School
\nTeacher \u2013 Mary Long
\nTomorrow
\nThe film Tomorrow represents heroes of time through two Holocaust survivors sticking with each other through their own separate stories. I thought if I showed the major hardships and these starved and broken people accomplishing them it really does show the determination and bravery in those times and I feel like by definition that is what being a hero is all about.<\/p>\n
Second Place Junior Multimedia
\nCabell Graves, Caroline Graves \u2013 eighth-grade
\nVirginia Beach Middle School
\nTeacher \u2013 Andrew Cronin
\nOne Less Reason to Live
\nCabell: This movie was created to show the challenging hardships of the Holocaust in comparison to our luxury-filled lives. Never again shall we let differences divide us, never again shall we let millions of our kind die without reason, never again shall we forget the Holocaust.
\nCaroline: This movie we made represents the comparison between the life of a Jewish person during the Holocaust and a 21st century teenager. It is important to realize that we are very lucky to have a great life and we all should be thankful for food, water, clothes, shelter, and family.<\/p>\n
Third Place Junior Multimedia
\nSarah Bragg \u2013 eighth-grade
\nVirginia Beach Middle School
\nTeacher \u2013 Mary Long
\nUntitled
\nThe piece of multimedia that I have presented represents a girl who is lonely and has no one to look up to such as a hero of humanity. The dance that the girl does represents the struggle that the girl is going through and how she would need a hero.<\/p>\n
All Multimedia category winners can be seen here<\/a>:<\/p>\n
![\"Hero_Hands_Williamson\"](\"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Hero_Hands_Williamson.jpg\")
<\/a>Junior Visual Arts Category![\"Holocaust_Chest_Maher\"](\"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Holocaust_Chest_Maher.jpg\")
<\/a>Second Place \u2013 Junior Visual Arts