Museum announces youth history contest winners
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, June 8, 2022
The entry claiming first place in this year’s Vashon Heritage Museum’s Vashon Story History Contest was created by Chautauqua Elementary School (CES) fifth-grader Nico Youngs and fourth-grader Maia Steffens.
The pair’s video, titled “Following the Roots of the Vashon Strawberry Festival” explored the story of the festival using stop motion techniques and creative paper cutouts. The museum’s contest committee found the entry to be informative and fun, showing good historical research and creative use of video to tell the story.
Second place was awarded to CES fifth-grader Gracie Protzeller, for her inventive poster with the self-explanatory title, “Why is Vashon Island Shaped Like a Dancing Man?”
Third place went to CES fourth-grader Addie Davidson’s “Where Am I and How Did I Get Here?” The written piece, with accompanying photos, explored her family’s history and sense of place on Vashon.
Other Chautauqua students receiving honorable mentions included the team of Adeline Arthur and Jia Khurana, who shared an entry, as well as Elizabeth DeLapp, Juno Leonard, Sadie Reissinger, Amelia Ann Stone and Julip Youngs.
The contest committee noted how impressed they were by the thoughtfulness and dedication apparent in all of the entries. The students were reflective of history, used their voices in the stories they chose to tell and presented their entries with a range of styles and materials.
Following the story contest’s two-year hiatus due to COVID, Vashon Thriftway once again sponsored this year’s event. The contest encouraged Vashon students to creatively present aspects of life and history on Vashon they think should be shared and remembered.
