GREENSBORO — Four first place awards were earned by Elizabethtown Christian Academy students at the 30th annual N.C. Junior Beta Club Convention.

Landry Singletary, 2021-22 elementary vice president, gave her farewell speech during the convention. The Skit Campaign won first place, as did Christian Andrews in Elementary Woodworking, Cooper Sasser in Elementary Recyclable Art, and Kaitlyn Todd in Elementary Jewelry.

Genia Hester leads the club. In addition to the first place awards, ECA also brought back:

• Second place: Junior Mixed Media, Isabella Beard.

• Third place: Junior Color Photography, Jag Gooden; Elementary Creative Writing, Christian Andrews; 3-D Design.

• Fourth place: 2-D Design.

• Fifth place: Elementary Color Photography, Cooper Sasser; Elementary Speech, Caity McLaurin; Elementary B & W Photography, Caity McLaurin; Elementary Poetry, Kaitlyn Todd.

Beverly Bridgers, head of the school that opened in 2012 under the direction of the late Dr. Ronald Montgomery, said, “I love Beta and all it stands for. ECA is such a small school. We’re growing, but we’re still relatively small. With 14 students in our club, it’s tough to compete with clubs that have 40 or 50 plus members. We’re limited in what competitions we can enter students, but our small crowd walked away with 13 awards. That’s not bad for a small school.”

This story authored by the Bladen Journal.