East Holmes Bedroom, MyPlate Contest winners announced
The overall winners of the East Holmes Bedroom Contest that features eighth-grade girls from Wise, Chestnut Ridge and Mt. Hope included overall champion Hannah Marie Yoder, left, Abby Shelter in second place and Julia Keim in third place.
Usually when someone hires an interior decorator to create an attractive look for a room, they have to pay big bucks.
The eighth-grade girls at Chestnut Ridge, Wise and Mt. Hope schools invested their hard work and time into creating beautiful bedroom suites just for a grade, as well as the joy and inspiration that comes with making a miniature bedroom.
The girls participated in the annual East Holmes Bedroom Contest while the seventh-grade girls were invited to create posters for the MyPlate Contest to promote the food pyramid and healthy eating habits. Eighth-graders also had the choice to make a mini quilt.
The overall winner for the Dream Bedroom Contest was Hannah Marie Yoder, who set the bar for future generations a whole lot higher by adding a large walk-in closet and a full bathroom to her bedroom suite. It was a bold challenge, but Yoder said it was something she thought about before the contest even started.
“I decided before I started I was going to add the closet and bathroom,” said Yoder, who has seen classes before hers create new and inventive bedrooms. “I put a lot of time and effort into it, and it was fun being creative.”
Yoder hand-sewed several tiny dresses that hung in her closet, created a very realistic toilet out of clay and even added a tiny roll of toilet paper in the dispenser beside it. In addition, she used a photo of her horse as a large print photo hanging over her bed.
She was not the lone individual to use her imagination, and the attention to detail continues to grow greater with each passing year.
“Every year I get more impressed with their efforts, and they put so much hard work and dedication into it that as judges you want to reward the girls who have worked extra hard to create something beautiful and unique,” said Janna Mast, Chestnut Ridge family and consumer science teacher, who spearheads the event. “I know it’s tough to narrow down the winners.”
This year’s judges included Sharon Hannah, retired federal program coordinator; Anita Shetler, retired Chestnut Ridge secretary; Norma Schlabach, federal program secretary; and Jane Mast, retired longtime teacher at Chestnut Ridge.
“This is the most difficult thing I have ever done in education,” Jane Mast said. “As a teacher here for many years, I always came in and admired the bedrooms, but you really don’t realize how tough it is to judge them until you’re asked to. I know how much time and effort the girls put into this project. I can honestly say that I appreciate what these girls do so much more than ever now. They did incredible work.”
Janna Mast said the eighth-grade boys continue to craft the physical bedroom boxes and build one piece of furniture that is requested by the girls. From there, each bedroom is only limited to the girls’ imaginations.
“We see the girls getting more and more detailed, and they continue to utilize YouTube and other resources to create inventive ways to add neat elements to their rooms,” Janna Mast said. “We’ve enjoyed including the guys in the process in recent years, and they have to work collaboratively to make sure the dimensions and scale are correct. It helps create situations where they have to use math and problem-solving techniques as well as being creative.”
Abby Shelter of Mt. Hope was second place overall in the Bedroom Contest while third place went to Julia Keim of Chestnut Ridge. Shetler, Alexa Yoder and Lana Miller were the top three in order at Mt. Hope with Ava Yoder earning honorable mention. Hannah Marie Yoder, LeAnn Yoder and Grace Miller took top honors at Wise with Hannah Troyer taking home an honorable mention. Keim, Grace Raber and Calista Miller took first through third with Lisa Miller earning honorable mention.
In the seventh-grade MyPlate Contest, Chestnut Ridge’s Laila Kramer was named the overall winner with Linda Keim of Chestnut Ridge taking the second-place red ribbon and Julie Yoder of Wise earning third.
In the individual schools, Dayna Miller, Audrey Kline and Gloria Yoder went one-two-three at Mt. Hope. Wise saw Julie Yoder take first, followed by Emilene Yoder and Grace Miller with Martha Yoder earning honorable mention, and Kramer and Keim were joined by third-place finisher Madison Brooke Yoder and honorable mention honoree Hannah Kurtz.
The winner in the quilt contest was Wise eighth-grader Heidi Mast.
“It was very hard to choose winners for the posters,” Hannah said. “They had to incorporate a whole checklist of healthy diet topics, and you could really tell how much thought and work went into the posters.”
Janna Mast said the seventh-graders did a nice job of adding texture to the posters, adding a whole new 3-D element, which caught the judges’ eyes.
Bedrooms will be displayed at Berlin Fabric in German Village from Nov. 17 to Dec. 3 and at Keim Lumber from Dec. 3-10. Berlin Fabrics will feature the posters from Nov. 19 to Dec. 3 while the winning quilt will be on display at Miller’s Dry Goods in Charm Dec. 3-10.