Art and Awards Ceremony at Art Avenue 12-04-22

Rotary cares about teen mental health. With addiction and suicide at all-time highs in 2021, Rotary Club of Sarasota Bay and Reach Out Recovery launched their groundbreaking teen mental health initiative "What Makes You Healthy" High School Art/Media Contest. Now a District 6960 initiative, Rotary Clubs and after school programs are collaborating to provide the opportunity for art and scholarships to more area high school students in 2023.

On Sunday, December 4th, parents, Rotary members, friends, and students gathered at the Art Gallery to celebrate the winning entries and hear music performed by gallery owner, Paul Sykes and his son Alex. Olivia Lee, a fifteen-year-old freshman from Venice High School won the $5000 first prize for her video attached below. The Science Lab received a $500 donation for inspiring the winner. North Port student Channon Southwell received $1000 for her poster about emotional health. Emma Barnes, a senior at Sarasota High School won $1000 for her painting, "Your Roots Don't Define You." Julia Kobzar from North Port High School won $1000 for her collage painting and self-portrait. Pine View senior, Kelly Zalewski and North Port senior Kaitlyn Shoenthal were graphic design winners.

"The Art/Media contest is a great way to bring health education, creativity, and art together with scholarship awards for the best positive mental health entries," says Leslie Glass, ASAM award-winning documentarian and NY Times Bestselling author who wrote Teen Guide To Health, the resource for the contest. "So many teens and their parents are focused on achievement and behavior instead of the life skills they need to be emotionally and physically healthy," Glass says; "we need to add basic health and wellness to student awareness."

The contest was open to all high school students on the West Coast Of Florida. 635 students received books provided by Rotary clubs, registered for the Art/Media contest on Reach Out Recovery, read the Teen Guide To Health, choose a subject from the book, and created an art or media project in hopes of winning a scholarship prize.