Miss Mmesoma Okeke, a Year Three pupil of Sunnydale School, Ikeja got her wish for her own bedroom when she was declared winner of the Pillow Art Challenge organised by I-Create Club in collaboration with Vitafoam Nigeria Plc.
The eight year old won a bedframe, mattress, pillow, bed sheet and duvet for designing the best pillow case which featured a boat on a calm sea at twilight.
This was after she submitted one of the top 30 entries – a throw pillow cover featuring a painting of the solar system and a rocket.
When her name was announced, Mmesoma joyfully collapsed on the bed, which was displayed on the podium at the Multipurpose Hall of the University of Lagos, venue of the event.
“I feel glad that I won. I will be the first child in my family to get a duvet,” she said.
Her mother, Mrs Udo Okeke, said winning was a dream come true for Mmesoma because she had been asking for her own room.
“It is a perfect gift. She has been asking for her own room for some time now. She shares a room with her brother. We have a room; but it is not furnished. So now that she has this, she will get her room,” she said.
Mmesoma also got a shopping voucher worth N30,000 from Ruff n Tumble. Others who received special prizes from Vitafoam were Damilola Bakare from Treasured Beginning School who came second; and Ayo Soyemi Momorieoluwa from Dansol School, third.
Twenty-seven other pupils from schools around Lagos who participated in the competition were also rewarded.
I-Create Club Founder, Mrs Eniola Afolayan, said the competition, the second in the series, was designed to spur children into creative thinking and aimed at developing future leaders who can think out of the box.
“Our competition is to spur children towards creativity. We deliberately decided to partner with Vitafoam Nigeria Plc whose products are highly creative and it has been a very successful partnership. The Pillow Art Challenge is not just about Fine Art Competition, rather, it embodies all aspects of human creativity, including, development of future leaders who can think outside the box. The competition is always one year engagement with the Year Three pupils of 30 participating schools across Lagos State,
“A child is given a plain white scattered pillow; he or she is expected to transform it into a master piece that tells a unique story with a painting brush. Voting by the panel of judges led to the determination of the winners Out of the three pupils in each school, one winner emerges, This brings the total to 30 pupils competing at the final stage for the Creative Genius award,” Afolayan said.
Vitafoam Nigeria Plc’s Group Products Manager, Mrs Rachel Ogolo, said she was impressed with the quality of work by the pupils aged seven to nine.
“I was so impressed with the 30 schools wihin the competition. We saw children between age seven to nine thinking out of the box. If they are nutured growing up, we should expect more,” she said.
Mrs Ogolo added that its partnership in the competition had been fruitful.
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