Blessed Sacrament artist's poster heads to national competition

SANDY — Hanna Jorgensen, an incoming 8th-grade student at Blessed Sacrament School, won first place in the Age 8-11 Drug Awareness and Abuse category from the Utah Knights of Columbus Substance Abuse Awareness Poster Contest.

Her poster is now competing at the national level.

"Hanna is one of those students who is naturally talented in art, which is great. She is incredibly focused, a hard worker, and she has a different way of looking [at things]," said Marcy Mullholand, Blessed Sacrament school arts teacher. "She has an innate sense of design."

Contest entrants compete in one of two age groups – ages 8 through 11, and ages 12 through 14. The Knights of Columbus Substance Abuse Awareness Poster Contest is an annual competition, with winning entries progressing to local, district, state and international levels of competition.

Hanna has entered the contest in past years, but this year was the first time that her poster was awarded.

"She has a strong sense of design and puts out a high quality product. She is a really dedicated, strong student," said Mullholand.

All young people ages 8 through 14 are eligible to compete in the contest. Students are encouraged to develop an original poster and slogan idea designed to discourage their peers from experimenting with drugs and alcohol.

"We talked about drug and alcohol issues and we talked about the dangers and consequences.... Depending on the school level, each lecture is different. It’s done for the appropriate age," said Mullholand, adding that with the older groups she talks a lot about word play.

"We think about catchy slogans. I tell them to treat it as a billboard, as an advertisement. We talk about editing the poster to make the message stronger," said Mullholand.

The students can spend two to three entire classes on the posters, depending on how they are progressing, Mullholand said, adding that she is very proud of Hanna’s achievement.

At the national level, the posters are judged on a 100-point scoring system. The slogan and visuals are each worth 30 points and the overall impact is worth 40 points.

The Knights of Columbus is an international Catholic fraternal service organization with 1.8 million members in over 14,000 local councils.