2024 Carolina Festival Art created by Ashley Yanez

This year, we decided to keep with the tradition of collaborating with the Wallace-Rose Hill High School art department to hold a contest for student artists to design our festival artwork. The students were once again challenged to design a piece that they felt would best represent the Carolina Strawberry Festival. After reviewing the submissions and much deliberation, the festival committee came to a unanimous decision. Artist Ashley Yanez’s design was chosen for the 2024 Carolina Strawberry Festival! We thank you, Ashley, for your beautiful creation. We love the design and how it portrays the essence of the festival and its history.

Here is what Mr. Kelley had to say about our winning artist: “This is my first year teaching Ashley, and she, in fact, was a former student of my mother, Wendy Kelley, many years ago. This semester, I was blown away by Ashley’s creative and imaginative artwork. She’s an incredible artist with so much passion and love for the arts. She is always thinking of new ways to be creative and I’m always fascinated by her captivating artwork. I am so proud of Ashley and wish I had 100 more students like her. I have thoroughly enjoyed having Ashley in my class this semester, and I’ll truly miss her. I wish her all the very best in the future and hope she will continue to be creative in the wonderful world of art.”

We would like to extend our gratitude to Mr. Kelley for his effort and support in coordinating the contest. Our schools are such an integral part of the community, and we are thankful for the opportunity to invest in our students.

We hosted our very first Carolina Strawberry Festival Grant Awards Presentation and Dinner in September. We, as a board, were fortunate enough after last year’s festival to give back to our community, which is the primary goal of our organization. We hope to continue this tradition for years and years to come!