Girl’s Winning Entry Celebrates Tolerance

She’s only a child, but 11-year-old Elizabeth Carranza already knows that in today’s world differences among people are often ridiculed rather than respected, feared instead of appreciated. But she knows it’s wrong.

“You shouldn’t make fun of people, because they’re the same inside,” she said.

On Friday, the shy fifth-grader was rewarded for her insights in a poster contest with an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., where she and her parents will tour the Holocaust Memorial Museum. “I want to see the White House and the museums,” she said after her first-place prize was announced before about 850 of her schoolmates at Oxnard Street Elementary School in North Hollywood. “I’ve never been there, so I want to see a lot of stuff.”

Sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League’s San Fernando Valley chapter, the contest drew more than 40 entries from fourth- and fifth-grade students in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys. Elizabeth’s winning poster depicted smiling men and women from several nations and the phrase, “We are all different. Inside we’re the same.”

Vivien Lowy, chairwoman of the ADL’s education committee, which created the contest, said she was impressed with Elizabeth’s idea and her artistic skill.

“It had a lot of heart,” she said. “I felt that she really understood the concept of what we’re trying to teach.”

Elizabeth suspected her first-place finish when she caught a glimpse of her poster in a frame but said she was still overwhelmed by the prize. It’s an especially welcome reward since her family is seldom able to travel together.

“I was shocked,” she said. “I wanted to cry.”