North Coastal Council of PTA Reflections Art Awards Celebration

The National PTA celebrates the 50th Anniversary of its iconic PTA Reflections Art Program this year. To mark the occasion and celebrate this year’s Council Level Finalists, the North Coastal Council of PTAs held a Art Reception and Awards Celebration on Wednesday evening, Nov. 28, at El Camino Creek Elementary School. Among those who attended were Kristen Beyer and her son, Jonah, whose photo “Dog Hero” was a finalist from Flora Vista Elementary School in Encinitas. Kristen Beyer herself had participated in the Reflections program as a child.

“Reflections taught me to participate in everything—every contest, scholarship, competition. Because if you never enter, you’ll never know if you could have won,” Beyer said. “That lesson has stuck with me to this day.”

On display were 143 works of art submitted by students from 12 schools across four school districts in the North County area. Of those, 43 were selected to advance to the next level of competition at the Ninth District PTA, where about 600 entries have historically vied to be one of the 30 winners to move on to the state level competition. Over the past 50 years, more than 10 million students across the nation have taken part in Reflections, making it one of the most enduring programs offered by the PTA.