A Conard High School junior created the winning design for the 2017 Celebrate! West Hartford Road Race shirt.

Fleet Feet Sports owner Stephanie Blozy presents the $250 gift certificate prize to t-shirt design winner Andrew Ferrucci. Photo credit: Ronni Newton

By Ronni Newton

Six-hundred people will soon be running – or walking – around wearing a shirt featuring a design created by Andrew Ferrucci, a junior at West Hartford’s Conard High School.

As a prize for his design, Ferrucci was given a $250 gift certificate to Jerry’s Artarama, which the store generously donated.

He was given his prize Thursday afternoon by Stephanie Blozy, owner of Fleet Feet Sports, and Celebrate! West Hartford event organizer Linda Geisler.

This is the second time that the Celebrate West Hartford Road Race Committee held a contest for the design of the shirt, and graphic design students from both Conard and Hall were invited to participate.

Ferrucci, who is a student in the Graphics III class, said he looked at past road race shirts before considering his design submission.

The winning design features the words “Celebrate West Hartford 2017” and “30th Annual 5K” within a graphic of the sole of a running shoe. Ferrucci said he searched online to get ideas of running shoe sole patterns, but then drew the design himself on the computer.

Ferrucci said he entered the previous design contest for the Celebrate! West Hartford road race shirt, and through his graphics classes has also entered designs in a Van’s shoe contest and helped create a safe driving video for a DMV contest. “This is the first time I’ve ever won,” he said.

“Celebrate! West Hartford is all about community, and we’re always looking for ways to involve more people,” said Geisler. Involving students in a contest to design the shirts is one of the ways that’s happening.

“A large part of the festival is the arts and crafts fair, and we want to promote artists of all kinds. This combines two parts – the 5K and the arts,” Geisler said.

Ferrucci was presented with one of the shirts with his design, but he won’t be able to run Sunday’s Celebrate! West Hartford 5K. He is an athlete – who is on the cross country and baseball teams at Conard – but he also plays baseball on the Junior American Legion team, and he has two baseball games this weekend.

Ferrucci said he enjoyed designing the shirt, and although he’s not sure if graphic design will figure into his career plans, he said it’s “interesting and fun.”

The 30th Annual Celebrate! West Hartford 5K and the Kids Fun Run will be held on Sunday morning. Click here for more details and for information about registration and packet pick-up.

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From left: Fleet Feet Sports owner Stephanie Blozy, t-shirt design winner Andrew Ferrucci, and Celebrate! West Hartford event coordinator Linda Geisler. Photo credit: Ronni Newton