{"id":24308,"date":"2025-12-03T15:17:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T21:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/?p=24308"},"modified":"2025-12-03T15:17:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T21:17:17","slug":"winners-of-city-christmas-card-contest-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/local-news\/24308-winners-of-city-christmas-card-contest-announced\/","title":{"rendered":"Winners of City Christmas Card Contest Announced"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-post pdfprnt-top-right\"><a href=\"javascript: window.print()\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_self\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/print.png\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\" \/><span class=\"pdfprnt-button-title pdfprnt-button-print-title\">Print<\/span><\/a><\/div><p>The City of Effingham would like to congratulate the three winners of the 5th annual City of Effingham Christmas Card Contest. The city had approximately 80 entries to consider from several Effingham-area schools.<\/p>\n<p>The first-place winner, Samantha Meers, designed the Christmas card the city will use this year. The Christmas card depicts Christmas on the Courthouse Museum lawn. Samantha is in third grade at St. Anthony Grade School and is the daughter of Mike and Ashley Meers.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-24310 additional-class\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/balda-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1726\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/balda-scaled.jpg 1726w, https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/balda-202x300.jpg 202w, https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/balda-690x1024.jpg 690w, https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/balda-768x1139.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/balda-1035x1536.jpg 1035w, https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/balda-1381x2048.jpg 1381w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1726px) 100vw, 1726px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The second-place winner is Sophia Balda. Sophia is a fourth grader from Central Grade School and is the daughter of Joe and Jessica Balda.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-24309 additional-class\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/meers-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2169\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/meers-scaled.jpg 2169w, https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/meers-254x300.jpg 254w, https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/meers-867x1024.jpg 867w, https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/meers-768x907.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/meers-1301x1536.jpg 1301w, https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/meers-1735x2048.jpg 1735w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2169px) 100vw, 2169px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The third-place winner is Anderson Gardner. Anderson is in first grade at South Side School and is the son of Collin and Meredith Gardner.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-24311 additional-class\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/gardner-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1757\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/gardner-scaled.jpg 1757w, https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/gardner-206x300.jpg 206w, https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/gardner-703x1024.jpg 703w, https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/gardner-768x1119.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/gardner-1054x1536.jpg 1054w, https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/gardner-1405x2048.jpg 1405w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1757px) 100vw, 1757px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The winners were recognized at the December 2 City Council meeting. City Commissioner Libby Moeller introduced the winners.<\/p>\n<p>The City truly appreciates everyone who took the time to create and submit a card design. The judges genuinely enjoyed looking at all the wonderful works of art and are looking forward to continuing this festive tradition. You are invited to visit City Hall this holiday season to view all of the entries by the Kindergarten to 4th grade artists, displayed outside of the Council chambers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The City of Effingham would like to congratulate the three winners of the 5th annual City of Effingham Christmas Card Contest. The city had approximately 80 entries to consider from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Winners of City Christmas Card Contest Announced - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/local-news\/24308-winners-of-city-christmas-card-contest-announced\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Winners of City Christmas Card Contest Announced - 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