2016-CHS-Vans-Custom-CulturCatoctin High School was chosen as one of the Top 50 schools for Vans Custom Culture Contest, a nationwide art competition where students design Vans shoes in four themes

Catoctin High art teacher Laura Day had a “dream team of artists” this year who strutted their artistic talents and placed the school in the top 50 among 3,000 schools nationwide.

The students submitted four different designs of Vans canvas shoes for the Vans Custom Culture Contest. The competition, which is open to public and private high schools, has teams design blank Vans shoes. Four pairs of shoes are submitted that portray four different themes: music, art, local area, and active sports.

Sid Beavin designed the Maryland-theme pair of shoes that feature a lighthouse seagull and sailboats.

“That was so popular that he is still getting requests from people who want to buy a pair,” said Day.

Casey Hanvey designed the jazz-music-theme shoes. Her sister, Lily Hanvey, designed the art-themed shoes.

“These two sisters are the most talented artists I have ever taught,” stated Day.

Jared Pawlus, Devan Buffington, and Alyssa Baker designed the action-sports-theme shoes that highlight skateboarding and snowboarding.

Brittney Fogle served as the researcher and assistant for all of the groups.

Vans pared down the entries from 3,000 schools to nominate 10 schools in five different regions for the regional competition in April. Catoctin’s entries won one of the spots in the Northeast region. This put the shoes into a round of competition that combined popular voting and internal scoring by Vans. Each regional winner would go on to compete in the finals in California. The grand prize winner takes home $50,000 for their school’s art program.

Catoctin High was not among the regional winners announced on May 12.

“It’s disappointing, especially because we didn’t get beat by the school in New Jersey that we thought would give us the most competition,” Day said.

She is pleased with how far the students did go with their designs, though, especially since they had to turn the project around in little more than a month. They received their blank shoes at the end of February and had to submit the finished shoes in early April. The students spent about two weeks brainstorming designs before beginning the finished pieces.

“They did a phenomenal job,” expressed Day. “We were the only school in Frederick County to get this far, and one of two in Maryland.”

This was the school’s first year in the competition, so the students were a bit overwhelmed by what was required. Since the theme stays the same from year to year, Day said that she can have her students start the planning now or at least much earlier than they did, leaving more time for painting the shoes.

“We’re proud of our work and so happy that we had the community behind us,” said Day.

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