Every year, the Adirondack Daily Enterprise and the Lake Placid News have a “Design an Ad” contest.

Our advertising department works with art teachers in local schools to make this contest happen. It gives local students the opportunity to try their hand at designing an ad for a local business.

This exercise gives students a lesson in the basics of designing an advertisement. An ad should be eye catching, easy to read, provide the address and contact information of a business, and share some information about what that business has to offer.

Giving students the ability to experience what it’s like to design an advertisement can show them a variety of career paths that they may not have known are available to them. Students may decide to start their own business in the future, and they can use this training to promote their products or services. It may inspire students to pursue a career in the marketing field. It may give them the confidence to help promote an event hosted by a charitable organization they volunteer for.

This contest couldn’t happen without our local businesses, which buy the ads to support this program.

The Newspapers in Education program, which makes it possible for students to learn about newspapers and why they are important in a free world, also benefits from this Design an Ad contest.

We thank the teachers who participate in the Newspapers in Education program.

This year, we applaud the art teachers’ efforts with the Design an Ad contest. Their students produced amazing ads and the participation was considerably higher this year than in any prior year. Due to the extremely high participation in the first to fifth grade category, it was decided that there should be two winners for that category in each place; 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

Thank you to all of the amazing art teachers and all of the students who participated in this year’s Design an Ad contest. Thank you to all of the businesses that support this learning experience each year.

The overwhelming response and support makes it a wonderful experience for all of those involved, and we hope this contest continues for many years to come. Congratulations to the winners. We hope our readers enjoy the Design an Ad sections included in today’s paper.