Dec. 12, 2006 – FirstBank congratulates Akeem Graham, the winner of its St. Croix Festival T-Shirt art contest. Twenty two students in the art program at Central High School submitted entries of original artwork depicting the traditional aspects of the Crucian Christmas Festival, surrounding this year's theme: "Celebrating our Heritage with a Cultural Blend for Festival 2006-2007."
The entries were distributed anonymously to FirstBank employees on St. Croix and their votes determined Graham to be the winner. A monetary donation will be presented to the art department at C.H.S. for their hard work and participation in the contest. In addition, he will receive a T-shirt with his design.
Graham's artwork will be printed on FirstBank's official festival T-shirt and distributed to the St. Croix employees at FirstBank, First Insurance and First Express. This is the first year FirstBank has partnered with Central High School for the contest. "Mr. Graham really captured the spirit of Crucian Festival. We are quite proud to announce his artwork the winning piece. However, there were so many impressive designs the voting was difficult," said Daryl Brow, second vice president and St. Croix market manager for FirstBank. The partnership was created in part to support the local talents of art students while promoting the importance of preserving the cultural heritage of the Virgin Islands community.
In a letter to FirstBank regarding this program, Gail Widmer-Babic, chairperson of the Fine Arts Department at C.H.S., wrote "We at St. Croix Central High School, especially those of us in the Fine Arts Department, thank you for partnering with us and affording our art students the opportunity to design the FirstBank employee festival T-shirt for Festival 2006-2007. We appreciate your support of our program as well as the chance to showcase the creations of our talented students."
