Hanover teen wins Crime Stoppers poster contest

A standard pair of police handcuffs was too ordinary for Grace Hazelgrove's taste as she pondered what might make good Crime Stoppers art.

"That's what everybody expects," the 18-year-old Atlee High School senior said.

She wanted something more compelling, more meaningful.

So on her first try, Grace used a computerized graphic design program to create a pair of oversized hands holding binoculars.

In the left lens, she placed a masked criminal with a gun, poised to rob a bank. In the right lens, she added a criminal with his hands cuffed tightly behind his back.

"On the left eye, the crime is happening," she explained. "Then on the right eye, it's the result of what Crime Stoppers does. It's showing both sides of what is going on."

For her efforts, Grace won a regional contest by drawing the best Metro Richmond Crime Stoppers poster for 2009. She was one of six finalists from the six localities that make up the crime-fighting program.

She was surprised by her success. "It wasn't like I expected to get anything out of it," said the Mechanicsville teen, who plans to attend art school this fall at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Crime Stoppers awarded her a $1,000 U.S. Savings Bond, on top of the $500 bond she received for designing the best poster in Hanover County.

"That's very nice for college and the future," Grace said.

Chuck White, a member of the Crime Stoppers board of directors, said the annual poster contest now in its seventh year was established to create an awareness of Crime Stoppers among high school students in the region.

High school art departments throughout the area make the contest known to students interested in creating and entering a poster, White said.

Each locality selects its top work with the winner earning a $500 savings bond. The Crime Stoppers board then selects an overall regional winner from the six.

Crime Stoppers reproduces the poster and copies are placed in high schools throughout the area. Police also post copies around the community, such as in storefront windows.

"I know Goochland distributed about 40 or 50 posters last year all throughout the community," White said.

Grace, the daughter of Walter and Gina Hazelgrove, said it's hard to predict what the judges might like. "They may not have the same style as you, or perspective, so you really don't know what they're going to think."

But she clearly made an impression with Crime Stoppers.

"The selection is based on the poster that the board feels will be the most attention-getting to the high school student," White said.

The other individual locality winners were: Charlotte Yates of Charles City County; David Bates of Goochland County; Karlan Bousquet of Henrico County; Brianna Compton of New Kent County, and Addison Martz of Richmond.
Contact Mark Bowes at (804) 649-6450 or .