National Award for Young Photographer

You may well have seen Lily Cornell's name on a previous page when she was announced as the winner of the Halstead Young Photographer Competition in the junior category. See details here.

As a result of winning in the club competition her entry went forward to the District competition where it was judged against all other entries, submitted in her age category from across Essex. Lily submitted a strong portfolio of images and was declared the winner at county level and her images were then automatically entered into the Rotary GB&I (Rotary International Britain & Ireland) National competition.

We at Halstead Rotary were delighted to learn that Lily earned runner up position in this final round of the competition and quickly made arrangements for her prize to be presented to her. The prize was a certificate, a splendid glass shield and a cheque for £50.

The prize was presented at a music assembly at St Margaret's School in Gosfield by District New Generations Chair Steve Wallbank and Halstead President Dave Rosoman. What was especially nice is that her Mum was also present for the occasion.

After the presentation Lily said, "I was really happy when I heard I had done so well in the competition and hadn't expected to.  I plan to use my prize money to buy some Playmobil characters as I really enjoy photographing them."

School Principal Elaine Powling said, "We are very proud of Lily and her achievements in this competition. This is yet further proof of her talent and skill in photography, and we look forward to seeing other creative pieces she comes up with in the future!"

She went on to say, "St Margaret's Prep always enjoys working with the Halstead Rotary Club, as they do so much to promote the ability of the young people in our local community."

Finally, in summing up Rotarian Steve Wallbank expressed his delight at Lily's success; "it was a fantastic achievement by Lily to be runner-up in this national Rotary competition.  Essex young people have done particularly well recently in other national competitions including 'Youth Speaks', 'Young Instrumentalist' and 'Young Vocalist', showing just what a range of talent we have in our county!"

If you would like to see a slide show / video showing a selection of entris received in the Rotary GB&I final then you can do so here