We have awarded the winners of the „My child on camera” contest

61 beautiful little finalists were awarded in the 16^th traditional photographic contest „My child on camera” since this year our daily paper is celebrating 61^st anniversary

This competition is the warmest and stirring competition with long-standing tradition in the „Kurier Wileński” newspaper. The grand finale, with the awarding of little camera stars and touching host concert took place in the Szymon Konarski secondary school in Vilnius.

Just before the coming Children’s Day, on May 27, children, their parents and grandparents were gathered in the school hall abuzz with children’s voices and toddler’s babbling.

Numerous big and small guests were greeted by the school’s director, Teresa Michajłowicz. “Such small children have never been in our circle” – she joked. “We are happy that this ceremony takes place in our school, because it is a special year for us – jubilee. This school is celebrating its 50 anniversary this year”.

By the entrance to the school hall the big banner with all amiable contestants’ photos were greeting everyone. All kids could find themselves on it. From photos happy and serious faces as well as kids in various poses and sceneries were looking at passers-by. The photos were taken of kids on horseback, in a plain basket full of wild strawberries, surrounded by flowers, on a rock, by the sea, in a park – all of them unusual and unique, commemorating memories that will never happen again. All of the sent photos gave the editors’ stuff a lot of positive emotions and the best photos were marked out to the finale.

The winners of probably the first competition in their lives were greeted by the chief editor of our daily paper, Robert Mickiewicz. “The committee, of which I had an honour to chair, had an objective to choose the most interesting and original photo. I think we succeeded. On the behalf of “Kurier Wileński” newspaper I want to thank all moms and grand moms that bothered to send photos of their kids via post. I also want to thank our hosts, the Szymon Konarski secondary school, and to congratulate them the beautiful jubilee – not many schools in Vilnius Region can vaunt such achievements”.

“I wish all the parents to think carefully of the school choice, because the good one doesn’t have to be called gimnazjum (kind of a secondary school) and the results of the recent contests have proven it.” – said the newspaper’s publisher, the president of the “Klion” company, Zygmunt Klonowski.

For sure many of our readers start reading „Kurier” from the last page which, it has to be said, is the most beautiful one, because this is where all photos of kiddies are printed. Probably everyone is smiling involuntarily while looking at those pretty little faces and watching the funny captions. During the day of the contest’s finale it was possible to see main characters „live”.

Justyna and Joanna Gawerska, years 2 and 9, were participating in the competition for the first time – for both sisters the newspaper’s debut turned out to be successful. Mother of three kids (there is also the oldest son), Stanisława Gawerska, is a regular reader of our daily paper. “Girls were really happy while seeing their own pictures in the newspaper. We bought additional copies for both of them and we’ve already put them to the album as a keepsake”.

Adam Augustynowicz, 3,5, was in the newspaper thanks to his grandmother. His first competition also turned out to be a success. At his house there is his sister, hence as his mother said, there will be another photos coming to the editors soon.

“Little fashion plate”, Dorotka Kowalewska, despite having only one year is already an indisputable star. Her photo was taken by a mom. “She is very photogenic and she always poses beautifully” said Dorotka’s father.

Patrycja (2) and Ernest (4) from Vilnius were participating for the second time. Grandmother was eagerly persuading them to send photos and mother realized the idea. “There was some hard work to get the good, interesting photo” admits mom of Ernest, Patrycja and Artur. “The photo that we chose was taken in the park, with interesting scenery and big rock in the background.

Mostly moms, trying to commemorate those beautiful but fleeting moments, take photos of their kids. Milana Širokytė will soon celebrate her first birthday. Her competition photo presents a little dwarf in the company of the Smurfs. As the mother says “”Kurier” is bought traditionally by the family and the 4-months Milena was eagerly posing for the newspaper”.

Damian Niemiec (10 months) came from Nowa Wilejka (Naujoji Vilnia) in his own “Mercedes” to collect his prize – he was sweetly sleeping in his pram for the whole event of thunderous music and the din and woke up only for the final part to see what’s happening. The competition entry shows the son after his baptism (3 months). As his parents joke, there were no problems with taking the photo because at this age all children are photogenic.

The readers of our daily paper could not only sent their kids’ photos but also vote for the best (funniest, most beautiful, most interesting) ones. That is how from almost 300 votes, most of them (71) got Luka Slavinskaitė. Soon, in July Luka will have 2 years. As her mother says, she likes dancing and is up for some mischief, she is cheerful and lively and, what is most important, she stirs up people’s positive emotions.

 “Our daughter woke up, she called us and so we came and encountered this view that my husband commemorated on the photo: Luka was trying to put on her clothes by putting her tights on her head. The caption that says: “None will tell me how and what to put on me” was invented by my friend” – says the mother.

In between the prizes’ collection, watchers could see some performances of the students from „Konarski” school. Throughout the stage the youngest and some older kids from the group “Świtezianka” came and went. As the choreographer, Teresa Andruszkiewicz said, in this school all classes dance, starting from the youngest years. She also invited all the guests to dance and in no time they have mastered some figures and danced along with hosts – pinguins from the first class and ladybirds from the second. Students also presented their singing skills – they not only dance as a whole class but also sing, which is taken care of by the music teacher, Krystyna Tiškienė. Agata Masłowska, the laureate from this years “Festiwalu Piosenki Polskiej Dzieci i Młodzieży Szkolnej w Wilnie” sung also a solo for the guests.

Generous sponsors took care of the tons of prizes for children. Wojciech Sawicki, a representative from the “Granna” company that offers games and board games for kids, Halina Janczuńska, a poetand an author of books for kids, Zofia Matarewicz, a general director of a “Sofina” logistic company and the director of “Wilia” school-kindergarden; Lucyna Kałtan, the director of a “Lisenas” company that produces sweets, Regina ans Czesław Andrzejewski from the “Kamion” bakery, while the balloons were provided by Maria Labul from “Dilada” company. The whole organisation supervised the commercial director of our newspaper, Andrzej Podworski and the whole celebration was leaded by the  form teacher of the 2A, Teresa Czyszewicz.

Now only some sweets that were given by the President Zygmunt Klonowski to the hosts of the Szymon Konarski Secondary School for the beautiful concert – and the celebration was over.

And in the entrance to school little Luka was shouting that she wants to go back to school. Maybe in few years she will sit at a desk here and will set off from the stage to conquest the public and other rewards?

Source: http://kurierwilenski.lt/2014/05/28/nagrodzilismy-gwiazdy-konkursu-moje-dziecko-w-obiektywie/

Tłumaczenie by Małgorzata Łabuda w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Małgorzata Łabuda within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.