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Surprising a 13-year-old seventh-grader is not easy to do.

However, Caroline Renfroe was taken a-back when her name was sounded over the quiet chatter of the Pike Liberal Arts cafetorium during lunchtime Thursday.

Caroline’s name was called as the winner of the 2021 TroyFest T-Shirt Design Competition.

She was one of the 200-plus seventh and eighth-grade students at Pike Liberal Arts School and Charles Henderson Middle School, who participated in the 2021 TroyFest T-Shirt Design Competition.

Catherine Jordan, TroyFest T-Shirt Design Competition coordinator, said judges for the T-shirt design competition were most impressed with the designs entered and offered congratulations to each competing young artist and to Caroline as the competition winner.

“Caroline’s T-shirt design is colorful and festive,” Jordan said. “It is just what you would expect of an art festival T-shirt. We are excited to have Caroline’s design for the 2021 TroyFest T-shirts.”

Caroline said she just wanted to make her design fun “just like TroyFest.”

Jordan said, as the winner of the T-shirt design contest, Caroline will have the honor of wearing the first 2021 TroyFest T-shirt. She will also receive TroyFest Bucks to spend at TroyFest on Saturday and Sunday, April 24 and 25.

“We congratulate Caroline and thank all the students who entered the competition,” Jordan said. “All of the designs were amazing.”

Jordan said this year’s TroyFest T-shirt Contest was open to seventh- and eighth-grade students.

“In the past, the contest was open to elementary students,” Jordan said. “This year, the TroyFest T-Shirt Design committee decided to open the competition to seventh-and eighth-grade students as a way of getting them more involved in the arts. We were pleased with the number of participants, especially during the restrictions of the coronavirus.”

The 2021 TroyFest T-shirts are $12 and will be on sale at the TroyFest T-Shirt Booth on the square in downtown Troy on Saturday and Sunday.