Avery Scrimshaw checks out some of the competition while Battle of the Boxes vote tallying took place Saturday afternoon. The Scrimshaw family won the Children’s Choice award for their Pet Spa creation. – Stephen Dafoe Photo
By Stephen Dafoe
Morinville – Two families and two local businesses walked away with prizes at the conclusion of the Battle of the Boxes Saturday afternoon. The event, which had competitors taking left over packaging and turning it into creative works, drew eight competitors and a lot of interest among library patrons who voted on the entries over the past week.
“I’m thrilled with the amount of votes,” said organizer Stacey Buga during vote counting at the Morinville Community Library Saturday. “The number of entries are less than what I was hoping for, but the quality of the entries has been incredible, and the turnout of people interested in voting has been huge.”
Competition was broken into four categories: Children’s Choice, Patron’s Pick, Most Usable, and Technical Knock Out (TKO).
The winner of the TKO prize was the Hiebert family for their detailed diorama from the Disney film Wall-E. Mom Jenise Hiebert said it took a bit of time for the family to put the creation together. “We spent a couple afternoons putting it together, and then it was another 12 hours to do the painting,” she said.
The idea was daughter Jaylin’s. “I thought it would be cool to do Wall-E because his cogs were cool and he was box shaped. So I thought it would be pretty cool to do Wall-E.”
Attention to detail helped earn the family the prize. Wall-E travels over a wasteland of refuse, including some discarded newspapers with stories on recycling and the environment. Mrs. Hiebert said she saves newspapers for gardening and the family spent some time looking through them for stories that would fit the theme of the work.
Other winners in the contest were the Scrimshaw family for their Pet Spa. Eva Scrimshaw said her children often use boxes and cardboard to make play items. The children were eager to take their work home and start playing with the award-winning entry.
Morinville Towing won in the Most Usable category for their working tow truck complete with flashing lights and a story about how the company saved Christmas by towing Santa’s sled.
This and That won the Patron’s Pick category for their detailed Grinch’s village entry.
Buga is hoping to make the Battle of the Boxes an annual event.
The Hiebert family with their prizes.
