Young winners of this year's Wigan Pride T-shirt competition are revealed
Talented young competition winners have been celebrated at Wigan Town Hall after creating original designs for this year’s Wigan Pride T-shirt.
Young people from across the borough were invited to submit ideas for the shirt that captured the spirit of Wigan Pride; celebrating difference and diversity, being positive, welcoming everyone, being kind, and encouraging everyone to believe in themselves and to be proud of who they are.
Catherine O’Kelly, Chief Executive Officer at Calisen, this year’s headline sponsors of Wigan Pride, led the team of judges, who had the difficult job of choosing just one winner and four runners up from the 258 entries.
She said:
“At Calisen we’re incredibly proud to be part of Wigan Pride. It’s such an important event for the community and brings people together.
“Judging this competition was incredibly hard as there was an amazing number of entries and the quality of the work by all the children was fantastic.
“The winning entries stood out because of their creative designs and meaningful messages that came together in just the right way to celebrate Pride.”
Riley Rose, age nine, from Leigh St Mary’s Primary School, was announced as the competition winner, with her colourful jigsaw-style design.
Riley was presented with her prizes, including some T-shirts inspired by her own design, by Catherine and the Mayor of Wigan, Coun Anne Collins, at a special Mayoral reception.
Riley, said: “When I walked into class my teacher said, ‘well done, you’ve won’, and when I realised I’d won the Wigan Pride T-shirt competition, I was really excited because I knew I would be meeting the Mayor.
“Not everyone feels included in some places so the messages on my T-shirt design are about being nice, loving yourself and being you.”
Riley was joined by the competition runners-up: Jacob and Eden from St George’s Central CE Primary in Tyldesley and Isobel-Rae and Lucy, from Newfold Community Primary School in Orrell, who each received certificates and a selection of prizes kindly provided by Calisen.
Scott Williams, chair of the Wigan Pride Committee of volunteers, who organise the annual Wigan Council-backed event, said: “The competition is a lovely way of encouraging the Wigan Pride values of inclusion and being kind in children and young people across the borough.
“We ran the competition throughout June, which is national Pride month, and received some fantastic thoughtful entries from schools and youth groups.
“A couple of organisations even held Pride Weeks with activities based around positivity and acceptance, which was fantastic.
“I’d like to thank all the children and young people who entered the competition and all the teachers, youth workers, parents and carers, who supported them.”
Wigan Pride will be in Wigan town centre on Saturday August 8, with family-friendly entertainment and activities across two stages.