AURORA | Firefighters, police offers and a few local news anchors will soon be taking up a three-month residence at H Mart, one of the metro area’s largest Korean retailers.
But don’t expect to see many news trucks, police cars or fire engines filling up the parking lot at the grocer’s Aurora location on South Parker Road.
The various personages will be showing up at H Mart in two-dimensional form later this month as the features of some 300 pieces of artwork submitted for the grocery store’s second annual drawing contest.
Started last year as the brainchild of Marketing Manager Jae Jang, the contest offers more than $2,500 in cash prizes to local primary school students who submit an 18-by-24-inch piece of artwork that fits with the theme, “My goal, my future.” Students were able to pick up a piece of drawing paper at H Mart and had the entire month of May to fill it out with a work of art.
“We have always been trying to look for things that we can do as a business to give back to the community, and this just seemed like a great way to do it,” said Brendon Choi, an administrator at the grocery store at 2751 S. Parker Rd.
More than 300 students from across the metro area turned in drawings, paintings and mixed media pieces to the two H Mart locations in Westminster and Aurora, according to Jay Jo, a produce manager at the Aurora location who helped translate for Jang. Subjects of the pieces ranged from doctors and athletes to a magic marker drawing of 9News’ Mark Mathis and Hannah Lee.
About 25 students will win some sort of prize, either in the form of cash or an H Mart gift card, according to Jo. The overall winner, 9-year-old Cynthia Liu of Broomfield, will take home $1,000 in future scholarship money. Jo said that the contest’s judges thought that Liu’s work, which featured a mountain sunset, was an all-encompassing piece that could appeal to many different aspirations.
Last year, the contest was open to middle school and high school students as well, but it will likely remain open only to primary school children going forward, according to Jo.
Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan will give remarks to the winners during a ceremony Saturday, June 18, at H Mart’s Aurora location.
All 300 of the submitted works will be displayed at the Aurora grocery store throughout the summer.