A vision of snowy woods and candy canes came to mind for a North Allegheny student, whose design won Omni William Penn Hotel’s annual holiday card contest this year.
Charlotte Neumann, a fourth grader at Bradford Woods Elementary School, was one of the 56 students from the school who submitted designs to the event, according to Marcee Finch, a visual arts teacher.
“Each year, the Omni William Penn selects a local school to participate in its Holiday Card Design Contest, inviting students to create a drawing that reflects the spirit of the holiday season. The winning card design is used by the hotel. This year, Bradford Woods was the lucky school to be selected for this contest,” Finch said.
Submissions are reviewed by the hotel team, Finch said.
Charlotte explained the story behind her idea.
“When trying to create an original and creative design, I thought about some of the classic winter and Christmas things and put them together,” she said.
“It is a snowy forest with Christmas trees and a candy cane border with a reindeer. I drew my design in pencil first and then outlined it with a thin Sharpie marker. To add color, I used crayons and markers,” she said.
The win yielded merry results for Charlotte, who was recognized during the hotel’s Light Up Night event on Nov. 21 alongside hotel staff members and Pittsburgh Steelers safety Chuck Clark, who was on hand for the award presentation.
Additionally, Charlotte received 50 greeting cards featuring her design, a signed Steelers football and a $100 gift card.
“It was very exciting. I felt very honored to be picked but was also nervous to be in front of a lot of people. Another thing that was very exciting was that I got to light the tree and received a signed Steelers football,” she said.
This was the first year Bradford Woods Elementary School was selected to participate in the contest, Finch said.
Though Charlotte won, Finch said all of the fourth graders were “thrilled” to be part of the contest.
“You could tell that the students were super excited because they packed their submissions with really creative and unique designs,” Finch said.
