Arts & Entertainment

Chalk Walk Draws a Crowd

Kids take their talents to the streets

It was tough to see what Joshua Jinks, 8, was going for in his chalk drawing -- it looked like a bunch of boxes and lines.

They were plugs and electrical cords, he explained.

"I put millions of plugs, because that can cause a power outage or a fire," Joshua said.

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Ah. The theme of Saturday's Chalk Walk for kids his age was "safety," so that fit right in.

He was one of about 100 kids to descend on the City Commons for Arts in Strongville's first Chalk Walk, which the group intends to make an annual event.

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"Next year, we'd like to make it even bigger," said Amy McEntee, who handles publicity for Arts in Strongsville. 

The contest was open to kids up to high school seniors, with cash prizes -- $20 for first, $15 for second and $10 for third -- for the artists in each of five age groups who best represented the theme. 

Younger kids were asked to illustrate a safety issue; theme for kids in sixth grade and up was "freedom."

The high schoolers were invited to serve as role models for the younger set.

"We want to show younger kids what they're capable of in a few years," McEntee said. "They were willing to help us out."

Anna Caldwell, 8, was carefully coloring a street scene. Her inspiration?

"I was just thinking and thinking, and I just decided on a stop light," she said.

Winners were:

• Pre-K - 1st grade -- 1. Maya Lawson 2. Sarah Anthony 3. Zain Syed

• Grades 2-3 -- 1. Rachel McKim and Anna Caldwell 2. Maddie Berardi 3. Isabel Rall

• Grades 4-5 -- 1. Andrea Isenberg 2. Kayla Manney 3. Andrew Ye

• Grades 6-8 -- 1. Diana Ridgeway 2. Julia Imbrigiotta 3. Madison Olivares and Madison Berresford

Grades 9-12 -- 1. Liz O'Neil 2. Kelsey Filut and Carly VanCucha 3. Alicia Weininger and Laur Y'urko.


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