Ashley Kersey wins TroyFest T-shirt Design Contest

Ashlee Kersey thought someone was making a mistake.

It was not her birthday. Why was she being singled out in the cafetorium to receive a bouquet of balloons?

To her surprise, Ashlee, a fifth grader at Troy Elementary School, was being recognized as the winner of the 2013 TroyFest T-shirt Design Contest.

Catherine Jordan, TroyFest committee member, visited TES Tuesday to make the surprise presentation to Ashlee and congratulate her as the winner of the annual T-shirt design contest.

“It was a hard decision because we had 225 entries and there were so many really great designs,” Jordan told Ashlee. “But yours stood out among all those designs. It was very colorful and it fit this year’s theme, ‘Celebrating Art Through Music.’ The TroyFest T-shirt design will be based on your design. The T-shirts will be sold at TroyFest and people all over Troy, Pike County and the state will be wearing them. We congratulate you on a job well done.”

Ashlee said this was her first time to enter the TroyFest T-shirt Design Contest and she “sort of” thought she might have a chance to win.

“My design was real colorful,” she said. “It was a tambourine with different colored cymbals around the side. It had a paintbrush to hit the tambourine with. The paintbrush had an orange handle and brush was purple. The colors weren’t all in the lines. It looked like art.”

Ashlee said she is excited to be the winner of the 2013 TroyFest T-shirt Design Contest but feels a little “awkward” knowing that her artwork will be seen by so many people.

“I hope they like it,” she said.

Jordan also expressed appreciation to all the students who entered the contest and to the participating schools.

“Two hundred and twenty-five entries were the most entries that we have had,” she said. “We had entries from the city, county and private schools and we thank the art teachers who encouraged their students to enter.”

Jordan said the Ashlee Kersey-designed TroyFest T-shirts will initially be available for sale on April 16 at the Downtown Concert, which is a kickoff event for TroyFest on April 27 and 28.The Troy University Jazz Band will be the featured entertainment.

The Troy-Fest T-shirts are $10 for adults and $8 for children and will be a featured item at TroyFest 2013.