Young artist bags first prize in Tesco competition

A junior artist from Exeter is to have her picture seen by thousands of shoppers after winning a competition to help design a hessian bag for customers at the city’s Tesco Extra store.

Lily-Rose Leach, nine, from Redhills Community Primary School entered a competition organised by the Exeter Vale Shopping Centre store, asking primary school children to draw a picture of what they loved most about the area.

Her winning design, I Love Exeter In Winter, showing a tree being showered by snowflakes, has been transferred onto limited edition hessian bags and given away in store. Lily-Rose also won £500 for the school and a £25 Tesco gift card for herself.

Jo Evans, Community Champion at the Tesco Extra store, and Neil Barnes, the Customer Experience Manager, visited the school, on Landhayes Road, Redhills, to present Lily-Rose with her prize and her own hessian bag during assembly.

The competition was organised by Tesco as part of its commitment to encourage community involvement.

Thousands of the hessian shopping bags will be given out free to Tesco Extra customers and they were also given out to fellow pupils, staff and parents at the school.

Jo Evans, Community Champion at the Tesco Extra store, said: “We asked primary school children in the local area to enter a drawing competition to tell us what they love about their local area.

“The standard of entries was extremely high across all age groups. Members of the team at Tesco had a difficult job to pick a winner, but Lily-Rose’s design really stood out.”

Mr Stuart Busby, Head Teacher at Redhills Community Primary School, said: “The pupils are all very excited that Lily-Rose won the competition and staff, pupils and parents are looking forward to using the new hessian bags.

“We are also very grateful for the donation of £500 which will come in very useful.”

The Tesco Extra in Exeter is open 24 hours from Monday to Saturday and from 10am until 4pm on Sundays.