Hi °C | Lo °C A RARE insight into the imagination of children was provided through a painting competition which asked young artists to draw to the theme 'i:dream'.
Representing Ireland in the Olympics, finding money growing on trees and learning how to drive a tractor were just some of the flights of fancy students between the ages of five and 13 recreated for the Sightsavers Junior Painters Awards.
Other themes pushed imaginations even further, with a brightly coloured drawing called 'I dream of playing piano in a meadow of daisies and bunnies' winning first prize for Anya Clarke Carr (9), of Ratoath Senior National School, Co Meath.
Billy McCabe (8), of Castletown Kilpatrick National School, Co Meath, came second with a vivid watercolour, entitled 'I dream of the spirit of Africa'.
And Cara Taheny (11), of Carn National School, Co Sligo, took the third prize for her 'Galloping through an enchanted forest on a blue goat with windy horns'.
John Fleming, CEO of Sightsavers Ireland, said the competition was devised to encourage children to engage with their creativity and to appreciate the importance of their own eyesight, in a world where 39 million people are blind, and four out of five of those are needlessly so.
Irish Independent
