The theme was “Be Kind to Your Mind” and Owensboro Innovation Middle School seventh-grader Mercy Tanner was announced the winner for her division.
The school received $500 from RVBH for having a winning student, which was put toward an Art Cart for students to utilize throughout the school day.
“The contest was open to any student from kindergarten to college in our seven service regions and there were winners announced and picked for K-6 and 7-12,” said Brooke Arnold, director of RVBH’s regional prevention center. “Mercy won the K-6 division because she was a sixth-grader when she submitted this work.”
Arnold said students were invited to explain what inspired their artwork and the pieces went through two rounds of judging, one from an internal group and one from an external group.
“She received the highest marks for the use of her materials,” Arnold said. “Her explanation really spoke to the judges.”
Ashton Robertson, youth empowerment prevention specialist at RVBH’s regional prevention center, said mental health affects anyone in any shape or form.
“Giving them this platform to speak their mind and show us what it means to them to be kind to their mind empowers them and empowers the students around them to show schools is a safe place to talk about their mental health,” she said.
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Tanner said participating in the contest, to her, is about when people are struggling with their own battles.
“It represents when people are having hard times and other people helping them,” Tanner said. “Being able to understand that you’re struggling and learn how to lift yourself up.”
Tanner said she experienced her own challenges when creating her artwork for the contest.
“I didn’t know what to create and how to represent it,” she said. “It’s hard to represent how other people view the world and their struggles. I wanted to make sure whatever I did represented them as well.”
Tanner said the inspiration for her piece came from other people, including artists from the community.
“[Art] definitely helps my mental health,” she said. “I’m pretty sure other people are the same way.”
Tanner’s mother, Davi, said Tanner has loved art since elementary school and it is great to see her “natural talent” recognized.
“The Art Cart that was provided to the school is just a cool representation of RiverValley’s mission for mental health awareness, along with Mercy’s love of art,” she said. “I love that she was able to help provide some of that for the school for the other students.”