Annalee Thorndike Art Competition Scholarship winners announced

GILFORD — The awards presentation for the Annalee Thorndike Art Competition was held at the Gilford Public Library on Thursday, April 16. The first place award went to Aislinn Hird, a graduating senior from Interlakes High School who hopes to major in illustration and literary arts with a minor in education. Second place went to Harrison LaFlamme from Gilford High School, with third and fourth place awards going to Mae Kenny and Alaina Osburn, also from Gilford.

Annalee Thorndike, was the co-founder of Annalee Dolls in Meredith along with her husband Chip. In 2000, Annalee set up a permanent education endowment, for the purpose of funding scholarships for students in the greater Lakes Region, who intended to pursue an art related degree. It had long been Mrs. Thorndike’s dream to establish an art scholarship, to help students in the area complete their college education and encourage their artistic future. The award was to be administered through the Lakes Region Scholarship Foundation. The first award was made in 2001 with Mrs. Thorndike present. Since her passing the following year, the scholarship foundation has been pleased to have Mr. & Mrs. Chuck and Karen Thorndike present at the awards presentations, in order to tell Annalee’s story and show her work to the recipients and guests.

Joan Frates, LRSF vice-president, was the event chairman this year, with a small committee of assistants, including Judy Ball and Paulette Loughlin from the scholarship foundation. Additionally, as in the past, a panel of judges were asked to review the work of the applicants. The judges are usually local artists and this year they included: Larry Frates, Roger Gagne and Acacia Rogers. When speaking with Joan Frates, she commented “We were pleased with the caliber and variety of the work presented this year. It was a pleasure to be able to have the Thorndikes come, once again, to represent Annalee. Their presentation really brings Annalee alive to all of us and seeing some of the dolls, even from her earliest days gave us a window into her talent and creativity.” She added “We are so grateful to our panel of judges for volunteering their time not only to judge but to speak with the students on awards night. We are also grateful to Katherine Dormody, director of the Gilford Public Library and to her staff for allowing us to use their beautiful facility to display the students work for a week.”