El Centro Parks and Recreation art students nationally recognized

July 29, 2009 @ 3:59 pm

El Centro Parks and Recreation art teacher and winning students: Lourdes Guzman, Alessandra Loza, Yuri Oh and Jaeyoung Oh

Three youngsters in the El Centro Parks & Recreation Department’s art class won honorable mentions in the “Art 4 Play” national contest sponsored by the National Recreation and Parks Association.

Second-grader Alessandra Loza, 7, was recognized for her cheerful

Alessandra Loza's Honorable Mention

depiction of six happy girls.

Yuri Oh, an 8-year-old in fourth grade, received an honorable mention for her children playing in a swimming pool against a starry night’s sky.

Fifth-grader Jaeyoung Oh, 10, received kudos for his boys’ basketball

Yuri Oh's Honorable Mention

game.

“Many of my students had in them hidden art skills,” said Lourdes Guzman,

Jaeyoung Oh's Honorable Mention

the children’s parks and recreation art teacher, “which with the proper training were able to bring those out on paper.”

The NRPA contest is part of the Park and Recreation Month in July and promotes outdoor play.  The contest gave children from kindergarten through 12th grade the opportunity to express their vision of play in original drawings or paintings.

Alessandra, Yuri and Jaeyoung were recognized out of 350 entries from around the country.

“The recognition given to my students by the NRPA was a combination of hard work, enthusiasm and the love of art,” Guzman said.