By Kyle Cusick, Staff Writer — Animation and graphic design students seniors Merissa Lake, Matt Oster and Taylor Ball won the “Make Me Beautiful Contest” hosted by Acme.

This past month the students in Paula Hinchliffe’s animation and graphic design class were assigned the project of coloring a template for a reusable grocery bag to be used in the Acme Markets over the holidays. There were two divisions: 6th grade and under, and 7th grade to 12th grade. All three awards in the older division were taken by GlenOak students. The students were extremely honored to receive these awards.

“It showed that I can do things,” Ball said. “It opened my world to art.”

Ball finished third in the contest and earned $250, Oster finished second in the contest and also earned $250, and Lake finished first and received $500. The money earned from the competition will be used to fund a field trip to Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland to learn about the technology used there.

“This means a lot to me,” Oster said. “I am very happy that they chose me.”

The black and white template was created by local artist Don Drumm who is a nationally known artist and sculptor. Drumm has had a long time partnership with Acme designing many of their reusable grocery bags. He views art as a vital aspect to society.

“It is a way of expressing oneself. Some people like to talk, some people like to dance, but I enjoy making art,” Drumm said.

[Updated Aug. 8, 2017: This article has been reformatted for consistency.]