Surrey’s Chloe Chiang is among three young winners of B.C.’s Democracy and Me art contest.
A Grade 4 student at Rosemary Heights Elementary, Chloe was tops in her grade category (Kindergarten to Grade 4) for art showing community-minded activities — planting a tree, hospital volunteering, visiting a food bank and more.
Close to 200 school-aged kids entered the provincial contest, which encourages young British Columbians to “reflect on the importance of community connections, civic engagement and the rights and responsibilities of citizenship and democracy.”
The youngest artists in the contest, including Chloe, were asked to create with the guiding question, “How can I help my community?”
The two other 2024 winners are Richmond’s Joyce Lee (Grade 5-8 category) and Victoria resident Jayla Boudewyn (Grade 9-12). Winning art is shown on the website democracyandme.ca.
Chloe and the others are invited to an unveiling ceremony May 7 in Victoria. They’ll visit Janet Austin, Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, and tour the Parliament Buildings, where their artwork will be displayed for several months.
Final judging of contest entries was done by Austin along with Raj Chouhan, speaker of the Legislative Assembly.
“I am always impressed with the ability of youth in British Columbia to express their connection to community and democracy through art,” Austin said in a news release posted Thursday (April 11). “As the leaders of tomorrow, it is important that youth recognize the value of democracy and civic engagement.”
In recent years a few Surrey-area students have won the Democracy and Me contest in different grade categories, including Sullivan Heights Secondary’s Priya Bhatia and Teagan Chow in 2020 and Keeratveer Bambrah of Henry Bose Elementary in 2022.