A NUMBER of local schools are taking part in part in an international peace poster event being organised by the
Lions Club.
Those taking part include Castlewellan’s St Malachy’s High, Newcastle’s Shimna College, Ballynahinch’s Assumption Grammar, St Colman’s High and Sixth Form College and the town’s High School, Kilkeel High School and St Louis Grammar, also Kilkeel.
The international peace poster competition has been running for more than 30 years and during that time, over four million young people from 100 countries across the globe have taken part to express their vision of peace and inspire the world through art.
The theme of this year’s competition is “we are all connected” and it comes after it emerged that in preparation for their annual convention last year, the Lions in Ireland commissioned a survey asking 1,029 people if they were aware of the organisation and what it does?
The results saw 54% of respondents saying they were aware of the organisation, but compared to groups such as the the St Vincent De Paul who scored 96%, the Lions recognised they had work to do to make themselves known.
When the survey reviewed the question with different age groups, younger people only scored 11% while those over 65 scored 89%.
In a bid to make young people aware of the work of the Lions and increase that percentage of awareness of the organisation, over the past number of years, Newcastle Lions Club have had a great relationship with local schools and inspire of the difficulties caused by Covid, this year has been no different.
Previously, numerous primary and post-primary schools took part in competitions Newcastle Lions organised such as asking schools to produce art work for a Harry Ferguson centenary event and for calendar on the theme of ‘Don’t talk to a stranger’.
The Lions Club said this was helpful in encouraging young people to learn more about its work, whether worldwide from helping to finance clean water projects or small projects in Newcastle.
The closing date for poster competition entries is this Friday, October 22, at 4pm, with the entries judged by two independent professional artists and the winners announced.