Watery and uncertain on the outside and strong and brilliant as a sapphire on the inside, is the feeling evoked by the new logo that will grace the lakecity’s multiculturalism program brochure.
Grade 10 GROW student Mekayla McNeil won the lakecity’s Multiculturalism Program logo contest and was presented with her prize last week along with runner up Jeremy Kelly.
The contest was sponsored by the Canadian Mental Health Association Cariboo Chilcotin Branch with the support of the Cariboo Regional District and City of Williams Lake via the Central Cariboo Arts and Culture Society.
Mekayla’s logo will go on to compete in the CMHA’s regional multiculturalism logo contest in February with the winning logos from 100 Mile House and Prince George which are also holding contests.
Invitations to participate in the new logo contest were sent out to the Boys and Girls Club, all School District 27 schools as well as the alternative schools and band schools in the district, says Marilyn Livingston, who co-ordinates the CMHA Multiculturalism Program in Williams Lake with Tom Salley and Margaret Anne Enders.
Nine senior students from the GROW program responded to the call for entries and participated in a workshop with games and discussions around judgements and assumptions.
“This diverse group gave an in-depth perspective to the issues on inclusion, belonging and anti-racism,” Livingston says.
The multiculturalism logo contest was held at Central Cariboo Arts and Culture Centre on Nov. 26, 2013.
She says the room became surprisingly quiet as the enthusiastic artists started working on their logos, resulting in nine thoughtful entries that were judged on Jan. 17 by Mark Savard from Red Shreds and Scott Gordon from the Barking Spider, both youth focused businesses that donated prizes for the winners, Livingston says.
She says Mekayla’s logo will grace the local multiculturalism program brochure and other correspondence.
Magnets will also be made to promote multiculturalism.
The City of Williams Lake and other community groups will also be invited to use the logo.
Mekayla says she chose the sapphire at the centre of her design because it is a symbol of internal energy and strength.
The sapphire is also historically recognized as the stone of wisdom, learning, spiritual truth and an ability to see beneath surface appearances to underlying truths and to utilize that knowledge.
The sapphire sits in the middle of an unconventional undulating earth image which gives the impression of a world in flux.
She chose to make the earth image framing the sapphire in an undulating, softer shape, rather than the hard round sphere that it appears from space.
“I was thinking of water,” Mekayla says. “I just didn’t want to make the earth round because the diamond shape is already so straight edge.”