OLDS — The winners have been chosen for the annual I Love Olds photo contest.
The winners and their photos are Cheryl Persson, Centennial Park; Alicia Webb, Summer Breeze; and Leona Megli, Wetlands Beauty.
Plans called for copies to be framed and hung up in town buildings. A thank you gift was presented to the photographers as well.
The winners and their photos were unveiled during town council’s policies and priorities meeting earlier this month.
Councillors were told at that time that the likelihood was the winning photos would be displayed in the town’s new Operations Centre.
That building, completed earlier this year, is located along 70th Avenue, near the new Rotary Athletic Park.
Town heritage advisor Michelle Jorgenson indicated that the Operations Centre was deemed an appropriate place to hang the photos.
“We have a lot of walls looking for some beautiful artwork to be hung on them so this is really helping us out in that way,” she said.
Webb’s photo was shot at the Olds College Wetlands. It depicts flowers in the foreground, a pond and the teepee in the background.
Webb has lived in Olds for more than 15 years now and described it as “a beautiful town.”
“I was just walking through the wetlands and thought: ‘this view is just too good not to take a picture of,’ so that’s what happened,” she told councillors.
‘Well, you caught it at the right time of year for sure, Leona. It’s beautiful in there,” deputy mayor Mary Jane Harper said.
Webb’s photo shows a streetscape framed by large flowering trees. She said she took it about a year ago.
“I just thought it was beautiful and I had to take a picture of it and I feel like it shows Olds,” she said.
Harper agreed with that statement.
“Yes it certainly does of our historic area in east Olds, it certainly does that,” she said.
Persson’s photo shows the greenery of Centennial Park with the path leading past the gazebo. Unfortunately, she was unavailable to give council more details behind the picture.
“We do certainly recognize the scene of springtime/summer in Centennial Park," Harper said.
Harper, along with fellow councillors Mary Anne Overwater, Wanda Blatz and Heather Ryan not only congratulated all the winners, but also all others who entered the contest.
“Upon reviewing them all, there were great photos of Olds and area and it was very difficult to kind of narrow them down to three, I must say,” Blatz said.
“In my mind you’re all winners, and you all deserve accolades for the work and the photos that you’ve submitted. Thank you so much.”
"I just want to encourage people to keep shooting photos and we’ll see what comes up next year,” Ryan said.
