D123 7th Grader Wins National PTA Reflections Contest

The National PTA Reflections results were posted on May 1, 2016. We would like to congratulate Blake Attig, a 7th grader at OLHMS, for earning the only Award of Excellence nationally in the Music Composition division.

Joan Scovic, IL PTA Cultural Arts Director, explains, "… Only 78 Awards of Excellence are given out across the entire country, and only 6 are given out to special artists. So except for one Outstanding Interpretation award, Blake Attig was given the next highest honor for his music entry, and only 6 special artists received that award from National PTA!"

This past school year, nearly 300,000 students in over 8,000 schools across the country contributed their original works to be considered for PTA's highest honor in the arts. This past spring, a panel of experts reviewed more than 1,000 national round submissions. Seven entries from Illinois were recognized, with our local IL PTA D34 having only one entry recognized at this level.

At the National PTA level, 206 winners and 78 Awards of Excellence recipients were nationally recognized. This summer, National PTA will recognize the collective accomplishments of the honorees during the National PTA Awards and Reflections Celebration on July 2, 2016 at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort in Orlando, Florida.

Blake’s mother, Mrs. Jean Attig, expressed, “Blake has been truly inspired by Mr. John Kehl and Mrs. Beth Lyons. Without their inspiration and support, I firmly believe Blake would have never earned this recognition. They have helped him explore a talent he never knew he had and for this, we are grateful. Who would have thought that last year's summer band music composition activities would have led to Blake creating this song and so many more.”

Here is a link to all winners from across the country: National PTA Reflections Winners

If you would like to listen to Blake's winning composition, click here. Enjoy!