Catherine McDonald Wins First Place Of Constitution Week Poster Contest

MDW Constitution Week Chairman Glenda Roach presented the award certificate for 1st Place in the MDW Constitution Week Poster Contest for 2021 to Catie McDonald.

Catherine “Catie” McDonald has won first place in the Tennessee state level competition of the Constitution Week Poster Contest for 2021 for the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). The achievement was announced by Regent Jane Chambers of the Martha Dandridge Washington Chapter (MDW), National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR), who is also Chairman of the Tennessee Society Daughters of the American Revolution (TSDAR) Constitution Week Committee. The poster has now advanced to the Southeastern Division which includes entries from seven other states in the Southeast U.S. with the ultimate goal of reaching the national competition.

McDonald’s poster refers to three of the amendments to the U.S. Constitution: First, which protects freedoms of religion, speech, and peaceable assembly; Sixth, which guarantees the rights to a speedy and public trial and to fair representation; and Nineteenth, which guarantees the vote for women. A close examination of the third tier of the poster reveals the name on the nameplate on the judge’s bench is “Judge R,” a loving nod to McDonald’s uncle Jefferson County Sessions Court Judge Will Roach.

McDonald has the DAR “in her blood.” She is the granddaughter of MDW Constitution Week Chairman Glenda Roach, daughter of MDW member Candace McDonald, and is herself a pending member of the James White Society, Children of the American Revolution (C.A.R.).

This is the second time McDonald has won first place at the state level and competed in the Southeast Division.

Entries in the competition are required to be original art with no drafted or photoshopped elements. Media employed in their creation can be anything from acrylic paint, to markers, to pencils. At each level of competition, 3-person independent panels of judges examine the posters and determine the winners.

Catie McDonald’s poster shines light on the 1st, 6th, and 19th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and the annual Constitution Week, September 17-23.

Artist McDonald is currently enrolled as a ninth grade student at High Point Christian Academy in High Point, NC, where she studies art as an elective, is active in the International Club, and is a Junior Varsity volleyball player and Varsity swimmer. She also enjoys volunteering with the children’s ministry at Mercy Hill Church and putting together care packages for the homeless people she encounters around the Triad, the High Point/Winston-Salem/Greensboro area. Most of McDonald’s free time is spent developing her talent as an artist in various creative outlets, such as school projects, collages, sewing, and drawing character design and portraits using various media.

The budding artist said she was delighted to enter the 2020 and 2021 DAR Constitution Week poster contests at the behest of her grandmother Glenda Roach. She said, “I love Mamaw; she is my favorite person, and I love to draw.” McDonald was pleasantly surprised to finish first in the state of Tennessee two years in a row in a contest that highlights the very document she believes makes our country so great. She plans to begin work on next year’s poster very soon.

Catie McDonald won first place in both the MDW Chapter and the Tennessee State DAR Constitution Week Poster Contests for 2021. Here she is flanked on the left by her grandmother MDW Constitution Week Chairman Glenda Roach and mother MDW member Candace McDonald.

The published purpose of the competition is for the posters to “illustrate the spirit and/or meaning of the U.S. Constitution.” The winner of the national competition will have her/his poster printed and sold in the NSDAR store.

For information about the DAR, contact Registrar Karen McFarland at (865) 258-8670 or Regent Jane Chambers at (865) 591-3857.

Source: Submitted by Jane Busdeker, Corresponding Secretary, MDW Chapter, NSDAR