A Year in Review, Week of January 26, 2012
2011: A Year in Review
Goofiness wins! While readers submitted photos ranging from breathtaking landscapes to community events and celebrations, it was the pictures of southwest Michigan’s youth who captured the votes at Leader Publications
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By CRAIG HAUPERT
Leader Publications asked readers to
give us their best shot, and they delivered. Readers submitted more than 250 approved photos in the company’s online photo contest, which ran from Dec. 7 to Jan. 1. Readers voted for their favorites Jan. 2-15 and, from that voting period, three winners were chosen. Heather Garrard’s photo received the most votes and a $200 prize. Erika Kirtdoll wins $50 for her second-place photo and Tammy Brooks $50 for her third-place photo. Here is what the winners had to say about their photos: ‘Being Goofy at Disney’ Heather Garrard Nine-year-old Nolan Garrard didn’t know his mother, Heather Garrard, of Niles, was going to enter a picture of him wearing a Goofy hat into Leader Publications’ photo contest. When Nolan found out about it, he wasn’t happy. “He told me the photo had better win because it was so embarrassing,” Heather said. “Then, everyday he kept asking if he was getting votes.” Nolan’s brief embarrassment paid off as Heather’s photo took first prize in the photo contest. The photo was taken during a family trip to Disney World in Orlando, Fla., in December 2011. Nolan was trying on hats at a gift shop when Heather snapped the photo. She liked the picture so much that it is hanging on a wall in their home. “That is Nolan’s spirit right there,” Heather said. “His personality is a very fun-loving, outgoing child.” Heather, Nolan, Nolan’s sister, Emerson, father, Kevin, and grandmothers, Barb Garrard and Janice White, went on the trip.
FIRST — “Being Goofy at Disney,’” by Heather Garrard: Nolan Garrard, 9, attends Howard Elementary School. His mother, Heather, a sales representative for a hair product company, took this photo while the family was visiting Disney World.
‘On a Mission’ Erika Kirtdoll Erika Kirtdoll, of Niles, never planned on taking a photo when she and her three boys — Acie, 4, Beau, 3, and Ceon, 1 — went for a walk on a sunny day in July. They were walking on Sioux Trail toward Ballard when Erika saw an image she wanted to capture. “It was such a random shot,” said Kirtdoll, who works for a CPA firm in Niles. “It could be anybody’s kids, the way they are walking in the street like they own the neighborhood. “I thought of all the possibilities, like the road stretching out in front of them. They were endless. They looked so small compared to the road.” Erika used the image, which was taken on her cell phone, for the family’s Christmas card. She said she received more compliments on that photo than on any photo she has ever taken. ‘Tony Books Keeping the Arts Alive in Dowagiac’ Tammy Brooks
SECOND — “On a Mission,” by Erika Kirtdoll: Kirtdoll took this photo of her three boys. She and her husband, Timmy, are lifelong residents of Niles.
THIRD — “Tony Brooks Keeping the Arts Alive in Dowagiac,” by Tammy Brooks: Tony is a senior at Dowagiac High School and is dual-enrolled at Southwestern Michigan College. He has since cut his hair for senior photos.
Tammy Brooks, of Dowagiac, was looking out her kitchen window when she saw her 17-year-old son, Tony, playing guitar on the steps of a vacant building on East Prairie Ronde Road. She grabbed a camera, got in her car and drove as if she was leaving the area. Instead of leaving, Tammy parked near the building where her son was playing and took his photo without him knowing. The result was a photo she said captures the essence of her musical son. “Anyone that knows Tony would tell you that this picture is him. He is always carrying around a guitar and always playing,” she said. “That day, you could’ve thrown a rock at him and he wouldn’t have known, he was so deep in the music.”