Star Photo/Curtis Carden Elizabethton High School art students pose with shoes created as part of the Vans Custom Culture contest. EHS teachers Lisa Malone and Patrick Roberts allowed students to custom four different shoes. Pictured (in no order) are Isaiah Stenzel, Alyssa Cook, Andrew May, Emilee Stone and Mindy Salyer.

A handful of Elizabethton High School students could have the opportunity to bring a grand prize award back to their school.
EHS teachers Lisa Malone and Patrick Roberts selected 18 students to participate in the fourth annual Vans Custom Culture nationwide competition, where classmates joined to paint four pairs of blank-white Vans shoes.
The Vans Custom Culture art competition is geared to high school students across the United States and encourages the youth to embrace creativity and draw attention to the importance of art as an integral part of our schools.
“Principal Josh Boatman let us know about this competition,” Malone said. “Late February we receive white, blank canvas Vans for our students to paint. We were given four themes; art, music, local flavor and action sports. We enrolled in the contest in December, and it started March 1 and lasted until April 10.
Malone added that four photos of the shoes were submitted, along with a post – created by Noe Beccue – that was themed “Technology and Design.”
Malone added that the next stage of the competition is pegged for Wednesday, April 24. Vans will select 50 schools – 10 from five geographical locations – and then the contest will then shift to an online voting method. The top five schools will then get to travel to Los Angeles to have their shoes viewed and judged by celebrities with the possibility of winning $50,000 for their school’s art department.
“We’re just excited to be taking part in this competition, but we would be honored and delighted if we could win the grand prize,” Malone said with a smile.
Students that took part in the event were selected by Malone and Roberts for their expertise in art. EHS students that participated in the endeavor include Noe Beccue, Teana Colston, Alyssa Cook, Catherine Cusack, Ashley Depew, Cameron Harris, Madison Hayton, Hunter Honeycutt, Chandler Lewis, Andrew May, Stephen Parrish, Kush Patel, Jake Robbins, Mindy Salyer, Lydia Snyder, Isaiah Stenzel, Emilee Storie and Steven Wilson.
“They’ve really enjoyed the project,” Malone said. “They were very excited, most of the students have vans themselves. There have been students talking about how they would design their own shoes.”
Stenzel, Cook, May, Storie and Salyer each spoke to the Elizabethton Star Tuesday afternoon alluded to the fact they were excited about the contest and enjoyed working together as a unit for the project.
“It was very interesting because we normally don’t collaborate in groups like this,” Stenzel said. “We had a long stretch of time to plan out the design of the shoe. It was kind of student-directed. We got to work on however we wanted the shoe to look.”
Art students in Tuesday’s class were behind the powerful musical piece painted on a pair of Vans.
Beccue also spearheaded the art department’s other shoe – which showcased art by having a splash of paint and colorful design don the footwear.