Pat-Med Wins $1,000 in Mural Contest

Patchogue-Medford School District placed third in ’s after receiving 44 percent of the online vote for a mural painted by students and advisors.

The district’s art department will receive a $1,000 cash prize. William Floyd School District came in second place and will also be awarded a $1,000 cash prize. North Babylon School District was awarded first place and a $5,000 cash prize.

The contest challenged different schools across the island to help beautify their communities by painting a mural representative of their hometown.

Students Christian Dounelis, Brandon Flaherty, Katelyn Gaffney, Juan Mosqueda, Courtney Unser, all juniors, took on this challenge along with parent advisors Kim Flaherty and Marna Karr.

The students painted an interpretative mural of Patchogue and Medford on the windows of the vacated Swezey's building on the Four Corners in Patchogue Village. It took approximately two days to complete.

"It captures all of the positive things in our community which we think we really need at this point. A lot of people have been focusing on the negative and what has been done. We want them to focus on what we are going to do," Gaffney said.

Designed in a stained-glass style by Kim Flaherty, the mural highlights the , the on Main Street in Patchogue, the Long Island Rail Road, the , the and the Shorefront and ferry boat.

Each school district was represented by one vote on WALK Radio's website. Voting began June 8 at noon and ended at midnight on June 14. Winners were announced early this morning.

As the Swezey’s building will be coming down for Tritec Real Estate's , the students said that they were asked to take the mural down as soon as possible.

"We worked really hard on this. It is a shame that they want us to take this down," Dounelis said.

The students hope that they will find another location to do a new mural.

Check the to see Patchogue-Medford's mural, the students who painted it and other murals from the contest.