A total of $5,500 in prize money is up for grabs courtesy of Tim Newman’s Best Buy Motors in Hillsboro for the best Christmas-themed car lot decorations.
“The money will be handed directly to the art teacher of the first, second and third place schools,” Cory Taylor, general manager of the dealership, said. “First prize will be fifteen hundred dollars, second is a thousand and the third place school will get five hundred dollars.”
He told the Times-Gazette the contest is open to all of the Highland County school district art departments, including the Hillsboro Christian Academy.
“And here’s the kicker,” he added. “In addition to the $1,500 first place prize, we’re going to give them an additional $2,500 to buy the supplies so they can make their vision come alive.”
Taylor, who is still involved in coaching and working with the Hillsboro Athletic Boosters, said the idea came from the owner of Best Buy Motors, Tim Newman, who wanted to do something fun and unique for Christmas and to also give back to the community. He compared the competition to an invitational basketball tournament.
“Entries from the schools are due by 3 p.m. Monday Oct. 29,” he said. “The schools will submit their ideas to us as to how they want to decorate the road frontage or poles, the buildings and the lot, they can decorate everything but the cars.”
He said the only criteria for the contest is “it has to be a Christmas theme, and it has to say ‘WOW’ when you look at it, and I’ve taken the judging out of my hands so it will be independent of the dealership.”
The competition will be impartially evaluated by a three-judge panel from The Times-Gazette consisting of advertising director Sharon Hughes, general sales representative Chuck Miller and customer service representative Ann Runyon-Elam.
Each school’s art department can submit their design proposals to Best Buy Motors in the media of their choice, ranging from illustrations on poster board, up to and including digital media such as PowerPoint and advanced computer aided design.
Once the winning school is selected, they will have until Thanksgiving weekend to wrap things up, with everything completed by Sunday, Dec. 2.
“With the deadline of Monday Oct. 29 getting closer,” he said, “anybody from any of the schools that needs information can call Best Buy Motors at 937-393-3338.”
Reach Tim Colliver at 937-402-2571.
