Amazing Wilmot student earns artistic accolades

Wilmot Union High School student Roman Ibarra presents his award-winning safety contest posters after a May 26 presentation at the school (Jason Arndt/The Report).

By Jason Arndt
Editor

An amazing Wilmot Union High School student with an affinity for art received an amazing honor from United Commercial Travelers on May 26.

Roman Ibarra, who entered two safety posters into the organization’s annual contest, earned a trip to international competition held in July for one of his two submissions.

Ibarra, a special education student, graciously accepted the honor before dozens of peers, staff and school administrators.

“Thank you, just thank you,” he said.

Ibarra’s two posters promoted safe use of matches and safety awareness in the Wilmot hallways.

Competition is open to students in public, private and parochial schools and for students with intellectual disabilities.

According to UCT grand council president Curt Barnes, whose organization has 55,000 members in the United States and Canada, the contest has been held for decades.

“It’s been around for at least 50 years,” said Barnes, who oversees the organization at the state level.

Ibarra, meanwhile, faced tough competition at the local and state levels to qualify for the international convention.

Ibarra’s two posters finished first and second at the local level, which advanced him to state competition, where he received the same results. They were judged on originality, artistic ability and content clarity.

Local council president Jenni Bucholz, whose office is in Racine, believes Ibarra has potential to succeed in the art field.

“We are thrilled that he submitted these posters for the competition,” Bucholz said. “We hope he does continue with his artwork. He has done a great job.”

Wilmot special education teacher Marcia Nolan agreed, adding Ibarra possesses enthusiasm for art, and hopes the student pursues other projects.

“He is amazing, he is on time for everything, shows up on time for class,” Nolan said. “He does a lot of art classes. I’d love to see him do illustrations for other projects.”

Ibarra, however, was not the only beneficiary on Friday.

In a separate contribution, the Wilmot special education department received a new wheelchair from the local council, which focuses on helping community service groups.

Nolan said the wheelchair comes at an impeccable time, considering the department’s old wheelchair broke after prolonged use.

“We have about 30 students in our special education program and these students use them a lot,” Nolan said. “The one that we had broke in half.”

Previously, the Racine council has made contributions to other organizations, including, but not limited to the Special Olympics, Southern Wisconsin Center, Careers Industries and Lakeside Curative Services.

Additionally, the local council continues to help area food banks, homeless shelters, veterans groups, youth groups and schools.


Posted

in

,

by

Tags: