PTA Reflections to honor student artists

It’s two weeks later than planned, but Lawton PTA is ready to recognize the Lawton Public Schools students who participated in its 2025 Reflections arts program.

Lawton PTA will hold its PTA Founders Day and Reflection Art Show dinner and awards ceremony at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Lawton Public Schools’ Life Ready Center, 702 NW Homestead Drive. The event initially was set for Feb. 18, but was rescheduled due to frigid temperatures and predicted snow/ice that day, said Patty Neuwirth, longtime PTA member and a member of the Lawton Board of Education.

The theme for this year’s Reflections Art Show was Accepting Imperfection, and 32 students from four Lawton schools participated, Neuwirth said. Students in grades one through five submitted entries in the categories of visual arts, dance, literature, music, photography and special artists.

Those student winners will be announced at Tuesday’s event, with designations of Award of Excellence (first place), Award of Merit (second) and Honorable Mention (third) in primary and intermediate categories, then Medals of Participation to all others.

On the national level, more than 300,000 students in grades Pre-K through 12 participate in the annual Reflections Art Show by creating original works of art. National officials said the show reflects Nation PTA’s commitment to arts education by providing opportunities for recognition and access to the arts for all students.

PTA Founders Day (Feb. 17) is celebrated to mark the legacy and work of the three women who created the entity: Alice McLellan Birney, Phoebe Apperson Hearst and Selena Sloan Butler. The National Parent Teacher Association (PTA) was established in 1897 by Birney and Hearst as the National Congress of Mothers, an entity designed to work toward the betterment of the lives of children through education, health and safety initiatives.