Junior Lily Reynolds won third place in the Scholastic 144 – 2021 Shippensburg art competition for her sculpture “Whomping Willow,” a small tree made out of wire, a recycled flip phone, dental floss, rhinestones and craft discs.

Shippensburg 144 is a regional art competition for juniors and seniors. The Pennsylvanian college, known as Shippensburg , conducted a competition for students in 20 counties in Pennsylvania, and two Maryland counties.

Reynolds said, “I read a lot of Harry Potter during quarantine and I wanted to make a project having to do with it.The tree is also called Whomping Willow in the Chamber of Secrets [second book in the Harry Potter series]”

“It started as a project in class for a wire sculpture of a tree and Mrs. Giesser gave all the materials. Originally the car was made of clay, but when Mrs. Giesser said we should try to enter it into the contest, we decided to try something more innovative,” said Reynolds.

Reynolds said, “When I found out I placed third, I was shocked and pleasantly surprised because I’m not good at drawing, painting, or any other type of art. I just want to thank Mrs Giesser so much because she helped me a lot, and it was her idea to enter my art into the contest.”

Tyler Jones and Savannah Presson also gained recognition for their work.

Tyler was named an honorable mention for his photograph of a Mason jar, and Savannah for her colored pencil drawings.

Along with Tyler and Savannah, Junior Joshua Roman earned an Honorable Mention for his computer graphics piece, “Audrey Joshburn.”