Tuesday, May 2, the Kiwanis Club of Green Bay held its 38th annual George Kress Youth Awards Banquet. The awards ceremony is dedicated to the fine arts.

Ten students from Notre Dame were chosen by fine arts teachers to be nominated for a fine arts award. For art, seniors Teah Brice and Elijah Dercks were nominated. For drama, seniors Alissa Dewilde and Jordyn Zehms won awards. Freshmen Caragan Olles and Henry Kanning won awards for forensics. For music, seniors Eleanor Sladek and Hailey Gutowski won. Juniors Clare Ravizza and Danielle Lippert won awards for journalism.

The ceremony took place at the Riverside Ballroom. Kiwanis Club President Patrick Olejniczak began the night with a welcome and the Pledge of Allegiance. After that, Notre Dame senior Hailey Gutowski sang the National Anthem accapella.

After dinner, an East High School student Ayslinn Gomez provided entertainment. Gomez sang a collection of classical rock ‘n roll songs, including songs by Elvis Presley and Elton John.

Matt Hero, a designer, artist and public art advocate, spoke at the event. He encouraged all of the fine arts award recipients to keep working at what they are doing and told them that the road will be difficult but worth it.

Arts are often pushed aside in today’s society, and some schools even try to eradicate arts programs completely. The Kiwanis Club doesn’t want to see this happen and knows how crucial arts are to students. Statistics show that students who are involved in the fine arts have lower dropout rates and connect with other students better.

“There are a lot of awards for sports and for academics, and these Kiwanis awards give kids that are more involved with art, music and writing recognition for their talents. These aren’t things that are reported on in papers or make the headlines, but these students are showing that their talents are important to their school’s atmosphere and well being,” said Notre Dame parent and Creative Director of Castle Sales Tim Lippert.

“It was really affirming for me to win the journalism award. It can sometimes be hard to make time for the extra work of an independent study like advanced journalism, but at times like this I realize that it’s really worth it. Today, journalism is so important. Though what we do at the NDA Tritonian is on a small-scale, the work of journalists around the country and world deserves to be affirmed and recognized like we were at the Kiwanis Awards,” said journalism award recipient Clare Ravizza.