The Sandy High School art department won $10,000 and an all-expenses paid
trip to New York for four after their skate deck design took first place against
41 other participating schools.

The competition was sponsored by Truth, a company that seeks to clarify
information regarding the tobacco industry and its products.

The contest partnered with Vans Custom Culture, and piggybacked on a
competition where 2,000 schools entered designs for four pairs of Vans tennis
shoes. SHS placed as one of the top 50 finalists in the nation, enabling them
the chance to design a skate deck based on their response from the provided
prompt: “In 2006, a judge ruled that Big Tobacco had been engaged in a 50-
year-long scheme to deceive the public about the dangers of smoking.”

With less than two weeks to complete the entry, senior Sierra Martz, junior
Mikayla Lindsey, and sophomores Pam Frasier, Hanna Benson, Ashley Brown,
Haley Kern, Dylan Kenney and Karlie Edwards created a design based on their
reaction to the statement.

“What we did was that we had one central girl who kind of represented
society, and we had the guy in the background hushing with his finger with
smoke coming out of his mouth, blinding the girl like how the tobacco
companies went under the radar, trying to do stuff without the public
knowing,” Kenney said. “At the bottom of our skate deck we had a teddy bear
and we really wanted to emphasize how the tobacco companies had ripped
away the innocence from the public without them knowing, so that is why the
little girl is holding one arm of the teddy bear, and the smoke is entangling its
body.”

After Vans released the winner of the contest on their website May 12, the
students realized all their hard work was being recognized.

“One night I was up until 2 a.m. working on the skateboard, and I worked on
it every day in art class for about a week straight,” Frasier said. “When I
found out that we had actually won, I was filled with excitement, and I kind of
couldn’t believe it. I thought we would do well, but I wasn’t sure that we’d
win, and to win out of all the other schools is pretty cool. It didn’t really settle
in for about two days afterwards.”

Aside from the $10,000 prize, Shanklin as well as Kenney, Martz, and Lindsey
received an all-expenses paid trip to New York City for the Vans Custom
Culture celebration, where they will attend workshops and an awards banquet
to see which of the five schools who had placed first in their respective
regions will win the $50,000 grand prize.

“I was really excited when I found out that we won and that we were going,”
Lindsey said. “I couldn’t believe it. I’ve never been on an airplane before, so
that’s exciting. We’re going to get to go to an awards night for the shoe
designs, and we’re also going to get a tour of New York.”

With the art department’s skate deck victory and promising performance with
their Vans shoe designs, Shanklin knows that his students are capable of
winning their region and by extension, the entire competition.

“I’ll be honest, it’s my goal for next year that we come back and win the
whole thing,” Shanklin said.

“I think we can do it. We almost won our region two years ago, and we won
the skate deck this year. So as long as students can believe in that and buy
into it, and work really hard and believe that they can win, I think we can do
it. This year $10,000, next year $50,000. That’s the goal.”

Aside from the prize money, students also gained a new appreciation for the
way art can be used as a medium to communicate various ideas and
messages.

“I think art really speaks to the younger generation and it is the new form to
get information out there,” Kenney said.

“I think it’s more than just writing on billboards and stuff like that. It’s just
another way to inspire the youth. There were 50 schools that did skateboards,
and all the schools that were involved with it got to know about the health
risks about smoking and all the information that goes along with that, so it’s
just different targeting of marketing to get it out there.”