PENDLETON — Viviana Martinez, 13, gleamed with joy as she accepted her first place award in the 2019 Pendleton Lions Club Peace Poster Contest at the Pendleton Center for the Arts on Tuesday night.

Martinez, an eighth-grade student at Sunridge Middle School, had been in this position before; last year she took home first place in the Pendleton competition with her poster. Martinez said that her win last year inspired her to work even harder to live up to the expectations she set for herself for this year’s contest.

“I was so nervous last year that I played it safe on the poster,” said Martinez. “This year I went all out.”

Martinez said her poster was inspired by a series of themes that her art class were discussing prior to the contest. She said the idea for the ribbon came from a discussion about finding a “road to peace,” while the remainder of the art piece came from ideas she had about what symbolizes peace.

“I wanted to use a ribbon of flags to symbolize peace,” said Martinez. “I took that and I wanted hands to hold the ribbon to symbolize all of the people working towards peace.”

Martinez’s mother, Gloria Corona, said she was very proud of her daughter for the back-to-back wins.

“She is very detailed and meticulous person and I know she puts a lot of time and energy into making her art perfect,” said Corona.

For her winning poster, Martinez will take home a $300 prize and her poster will advance to the next level of judging. Kacie Atkinson, 13, took home the $200 second-place prize while the $100 third-place prize went to Drew Hathaway.

In addition to their prize money, the winning students were invited to the Lions meeting next Thursday for a free meal for themselves and a family member, and the chance to share their art with additional members of the club.

Martinez’s winning poster will advance to the district contest where it will be judged against others from throughout the region. While all of the posters were on display at the Pendleton Center for the Arts for several days leading up to Tuesday night’s event, a reproduction of Martinez’s poster, as well as a selection of additional posters, will be on display at Blue Mountain Community College in the coming weeks.

More than 100 Sunridge Middle School students submitted posters for this year’s contest after working on them during class. The Pendleton contest, which is a part of the International Lions Peace Poster Contest, was open to students ages 11-13 and sponsored by the local Lions Club.

While the poster contest revolves around a different theme each year, Sunridge Middle School art teacher Michelle Sickels said this year’s theme, “Journey of Peace,” was particularly easy for her students to grasp.

“There are a lot of very great posters this year and the kids worked very hard on them,” said Sickels. “This year’s theme was right on their level and proved easy for them to grasp.”

Brian Purnell, an art instructor at Pendleton Center for the Arts and one of this year’s contest judges, said he was impressed with the creativity and originality of the posters. He said that in judging he looked for the posters that communicated the theme most simply and clearly.

“No two were even remotely alike and that originality is something I try to foster in my own students,” said Purnell. “I was really impressed with the work that I saw.”