PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Seth Donais, the great-grandson of Bernice Perry of Presque Isle, won first-place honors in the Maine Elks Association’s Drug Awareness Poster contest.
In February 2020, as a member of June Hoffses’ fifth-grade class at Zippel Elementary School, Donais designed a poster for the Maine Elks’ Drug Awareness theme “Life Does Not Rewind.”
The Drug Awareness Committee of the Presque Isle Elks Lodge 1954 judged it to be the best poster in the boys division, and they forwarded the artwork to the District North chair for judging. District adjudicators declared it the best of all posters from all seven Elks lodges in the district.
Donais’ poster was then forwarded to the Maine Elks Association for judging against posters from the two other districts in Maine. A committee, chosen by the Maine Elks Association Drug Awareness Chair Anthony Gause, determined it the best to be submitted in the boys division during the 2019-2020 lodge year.
According to Elks officials, this is the second consecutive year in which Hoffses has inspired a student in her class to win the Maine Elks State Association first-place award.
Because the association’s state convention was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Donais did not receive recognition at that event. The Drug Awareness Committee of the local lodge hosted a recognition dinner for Seth, his great-grandmother and their two close friends at a local restaurant on July 10.
During that event, Alan Harding, Drug Awareness Program chairman for the lodge, presented Donais with a commemorative plaque, which incorporated his winning poster, as well as a check from the Maine Elks Association for $150.
