Huntley Knights of Columbus names poster contest winners

Four local youth ages 8-14 from the Huntley area were named winners in the 2011 Knights of Columbus Substance Abuse Awareness Poster Contest, sponsored by the St. Mary of Huntley Knights of Columbus Council 11666 in January. They have earned the right to compete at the district level.

The winners in the 8- to 11-year-old bracket were Mellissa Tito for the “Drug Abuse” theme and Rachel Bielawski for the “Alcohol Abuse” theme. The 12- to 14-year-old winners were Abby Piemonte for the “Drug Abuse” theme and Tyler Rau for the “Alcohol Abuse” theme.

Youngsters ages 10-14 were eligible to participate. The participants were encouraged to develop an original poster and slogan idea designed to discourage their peers from experimenting with drugs and alcohol.

The Knights of Columbus Substance Abuse Awareness Poster Contest is an annual competition, with local winning entries progressing to district, state and international levels of competition.

Tyler Rau's submission competed against all the other Illinois posters in the 12-14 age bracket and became the state of Illinois Alcohol Abuse poster winner.

When asked about his poster, Tyler, of Lake in the Hills, stated that some help came from the substance abuse programs taught at Marlowe Middle School, as well as liking to draw.

“The ideas just came to me and I drew the poster” is how Tyler described his efforts as he prepared his poster for this contest. His poster advances to national competition.

The Knights of Columbus is an international Catholic family fraternal service organization with nearly 1.7 million members in more than 13,000 local councils. Last year, Knights donated 66 million volunteer hours and $144 million in charitable and benevolent causes, sponsoring projects to benefit their church, councils, communities, families and youth.