Mick Antoniw, Assembly Member for Pontypridd has congratulated the winners of the annual Pontypridd AM & MP Christmas card design competition. The theme of this year’s competition was ‘the environment at Christmas’.
The Christmas card competition, which is now in its sixth year, has proved popular with primary schools across the Pontypridd constituency and this year, for the first time, secondary schools were invited to participate.
Mick Antoniw said:
“I visit local schools on a regular basis and I am always impressed by the students’ enthusiasm about the environmental projects they are working on, so it was very easy to decide the theme of this year’s competition.
“Once again the standard of the artwork submitted was absolutely fantastic and choosing the winner was a very difficult decision. I’d like to congratulate everyone who entered and in particular Sophia Andrews, whose winning design has already been made into a Christmas card and sent to hundreds of people, including Wales’ First Minister.”
Receiving a framed copy of her winning design and her prize of a £50 book token, Year 9 student at Y Pant Sophia Andrews said:
“I really enjoyed the challenge of presenting environmental issues alongside a Christmas theme.”
Explaining the inspiration behind her design Sophia said:
“The hand represents us on Earth. The Bauble Represents the Earth. The thread between us shows the Earth hanging on after all the damage we have caused to the Environment.”
Head of Art at Y Pant school Jo Gold added:
“Many of our students have a keen interest in environmental issues, so they were particularly pleased to be given the opportunity to participate in an art competition, where the theme allowed them to express their views in a creative way.”
Since its introduction the Christmas Card competition has been generously sponsored by Edwards Coaches, who are based in Llantrisant. Head of Marketing at Edwards said:
‘We are absolutely delighted to once again support this fantastic competition which we have done for a number of years. The standard of artwork was fantastic and all entrants should be extremely proud of their efforts.’
The competition runners-up were Ben Watkins, year 9 from Tonyrefail Community School and Lorna Doyle, year 9 and also from Y Pant High School.