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Winona Steamboat Days Association members discussed a plan to trick the winner of the button design contest, a 14-year-old eighth-grader at Bluffview.
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As the school held an assembly, complete with speeches and songs, committee member Pam Simon-Salwey instructed her daughter Jillian, a Bluffview student herself, on her role in the scheme.
When the committee members took the stage, the crowd of students seated on the floor were already buzzing.
Clues about the identity of the button contest winner were read, and the crowd got more and more excited.
The person had been at Bluffview since preschool. She is in orchestra. She has made two Bluffview teachers cry.
With the field narrowed down, Jillian was called to the front, and the crowd applauded her, convinced she had won. Instead, she was a decoy, to salvage a small amount of suspense until the real winner was announced.
Jillian then called her classmate Polachek to the front, who subdued a smile while the crowd again erupted in applause. Her winning button was unveiled from behind a curtain for all to see.
“My uncle said something to me already,” she said.
Even though the cat had been let out of the bag, the impromptu trickery managed to rescue a moment of surprise, Polachek said.
Along with a plaque containing the image of her button design, Polachek was also awarded a $100 savings bond, five carnival arm bands, a spot in both the Grande and Kiddie parades, and four buttons that will get her family into the fair June 18-22.
- To To see all the button contest entries click here.
Polachek’s work took her about a week to concoct and draw, she said. Time well spent to become the winning designer of the button that will gain event goers entrance into the beverage garden and to a performance by the South Shore Drill Team.
“I wanted to incorporate the words ‘Steamboat Days’ into the button,” Polachek said, explaining her design.
Blong Vang, of Winona Middle School, turned in the second place design, and Drew Ebertowski of WMS came in third. The buttons will be available starting this Friday from over 60 business locations. They are $3 for an advance order, and $5 during Steamboat Days.
