Menlo Park Lion Club holds 4th annual children’s art competition

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The Menlo Park Lion Club 16J held their fourth annual Love, Peace and Harmony art competition for children ages 3 to 16 on Sunday, February 18 at Lil’ Big Ones Childcare and Learning Center in South Plainfield.

The event was attended by Mayor South Plainfield Borough Matthew Anesh, Congresswoman Christin Faustini and PDG Lion Mahesh Chitnis.

Varsha Naik the former Chartered President of the club started the competition four years ago with only 20 children, while 30 children attended the following year and 45 the year after.

This year 100 children attended the competition, a target which was reached two weeks prior to the competition.

Four groups were formed including the group for special need children and it was mind blowing to see the thoughts of these young children, drawn out on paper.

Artists Dorothy Miele, Neelima Tandon and Dhwani Shah were the judges at the competition and they were amazed to see the different interpretation for the subject “Love, Peace & Harmony.”

Naik explained about Lions Club and the reason for introducing this activity four years ago.

Club President Prashant Karnik talked about the need of awareness of Love, Peace and Harmony within young children and mentioned that young brains perceive the same information as adults but interpret it differently.

Karnik hopes that next year the competition will see 200 children attending.

Our District Governor Lion Dawn and our 20 club members volunteered at this event to make it a very successful event.

Both Mayor Anesh and Congresswoman Christin agreed to help look for a larger venue next year to accommodate the targeted 200 participants.

The following children won the competition:

Sahithi, a special needs girl, won a special award for participation in art contest.