Lower Cape May Regional (LCMR) High School Art Class is one of fifty finalists in the Vans High School Custom Culture Contest

VOTE for Lower Cape May Regional High School in the Vans Custom Culture Competition!

Lower Cape May Regional High School made it to the top 50 of the Vans Custom Culture Competition for the second year in a row. Students need your help in advancing to the top 5!!

CALL TO ACTION:

Please visit customculture.vans.com to vote for LCMR!

You can vote every day from now until May 6th!

Support Lower Cape May in our chance to win $50,000 for the art program!

TEAM:

Ms. Carly Crisanti, Andy Feliciano, Mya Salasin, Chris Panelli, Isabella Menzano, Joel Rodriguez

COMPETITION DETAILS:

The Vans Custom Culture Competition is an annual competition for high schools across the nation. The Vans Company sends shoes out to 250 high schools whose students will then design and decorate the shoes based on the two given themes. Participating schools compete for the chance to win $50,000 towards their school’s art program.

This year’s themes:

Hometown Pride – representing the school’s local area with a bonus challenge focused on sustainability. LCMR chose to participate in this challenge by using only things found in the natural environment in our community and supplies that we owned prior to creating the shoes.

Van Doren legacy – honoring the late Vans cofounder Paul Van Doren and his legacy. This pair represents the four pillars of Vans: action sports, art, music, and street culture.

QUOTES:

“It’s such a unique experience that a popular company like Vans even cares about art and high school art programs…and even cooler that they host this competition and offer prize money!” – Andy Feliciano, senior

“It’s an opportunity to create a team of artists who come together for one purpose. We make these shoes each year and collaborate. Winning the money would mean so much to our small school and help us to expand our art program!”- Mya Salasin, senior

“I feel very strongly about taking care of our planet and our environment, so I loved the sustainability bonus challenge. I went to the beach and picked up trash and debris for us to use in our construction. We used these supplies to make our “Hometown Pride” shoes into a horseshoe crab.”- Isabella Menzano, senior

 “This competition means the world to my students. Having a high profile “cool” company like Vans not only recognizes the importance of what we do, but encourage it, is so wonderful. Students come to me each year asking about the Vans competition, eager to participate. This year the interest expanded beyond just the students enrolled in my class. One of our big contributors this year isn’t an art student, but a culinary student!  That’s what this competition does, it pushes students to embrace their creativity.” – Carly Crisanti, art teacher

IMPACT DOCUMENT:

Along with photos of the shoes, we submit an “impact document” that outlines the impact that winning this competition would have on our students, community and program. Written by art teacher, Carly Crisanti, you may take any quotes from this document as well. (See Below)

Lower Cape May Regional High School Impact Document 2022

Having participated in this competition for a few years, the “VANS thing” has become a topic that students – in and out of our art class – will ask about.  We’ve all been through a rough couple of years and this school year has seen us inching back toward normality. After years of virtual learning and social distancing, it has been joyful to see our team collaborate in person this year. In fact, for the first time in our history of competing, we had the help and input of non-art students! Simply participating in this competition has positively impacted our school and community by bringing recognition to our art program. In particular, after reaching the top 50 last year, we’ve found that students, staff and other community members ask about our art program more frequently.

When presented with this year’s opportunity to participate in the bonus challenge, our team immediately had an idea that honors the challenge as well as our local environment. Being from a shore town, keeping our beaches clean is a concept ingrained in our minds, so it’s no surprise that students decided to do a beach clean up. They used the natural materials found as well as trash that they removed from the beach to create our Hometown Pride shoes. Not only did they sneak in a public service by incorporating a beach clean up, but they also decided to use this opportunity to represent a threatened species from our area: the Atlantic horseshoe crab. It’s an animal that you may not know exists if you’re not from our hometown, yet one that is all too familiar to us. With our hometown pride shoes, we bring attention to this animal that has been subject to overfishing and environmental stressors. Often, horseshoe crabs can be found dead on the sand after not being flipped over and unable to right themselves. With our hometown pride shoes, we remind everyone to take their trash with them, take care of our environment, and flip over any horseshoe crabs that find themselves upside down.

If we were to win the prize money, we would seek to utilize it in a way that would continue to promote our program in a positive way. We would like to purchase more supplies to make available to students. Technology like printers, scanners, and Ipads would allow for digital artwork, animation and graphic design. Screen-printing, airbrushes and fabric paints would allow students to explore the connection between art and fashion–one that VANS knows well. This competition has interested many students–and this year even compelled non-art students to get involved in the arts. Likewise, expanding our available resources and art-making methods would pique the interest of more students with diverse interests and backgrounds, giving them an opportunity to express themselves, speak their minds, and champion for causes deep in their hearts. Winning this competition and prize money would open up a world of possibilities to students who absolutely have perspective, passion, and the ability to change the world in ways large & small.