Freedom’s two new poster children

When George Simonyan and David Amirian — eighth-graders at Toll Middle School who also happen to be cousins — were asked to create posters to artistically represent what the concept of freedom meant to them, they avoided obvious symbols like the Statue of Liberty, instead painting metaphorical scenes.

George, 13, sketched a winding road next to a street sign labeled “Freedom.”

The road is supposed to remind people looking at the poster that everyone must safeguard their freedom by following the right path, and to not take a detour in life that would take that freedom away from them.

David, 13, also painted a road — his stretching between distant mountains — with clouds in the background that melted into the shape of a dove.

David said his painting was supposed to show that freedom was a goal to be worked toward, an end result that must be pursued like the destination in a long journey.

For these posters and accompanying essays on the subject of freedom, George and David were selected to be part of a group of eight winners of this year’s “Freedom Through My Eyes” contest, a competition sponsored by the Los Angeles Lakers and the Lakers Youth Foundation.

The contest, which was open to middle school students around Los Angeles County, asked students to describe what freedom meant to them by creating a poster and composing an essay on that topic.

This is the second year the Lakers have run the freedom contest.

The goal of the competition, according to Lakers officials, is to foster students’ interest in what freedom means.

George, David and two of their relatives won a free four-day trip to Washington, D.C., to tour the district’s monuments and sights.

The boys will also get to watch the Lakers play the Washington Wizards on the last day of the trip. They will also be recognized at halftime at a Lakers game at the Staples Center in Los Angeles later this basketball season.

Both boys, who have never been to Washington, D.C., and who are Lakers fans, said they are thrilled with the prospect of seeing the nation’s capital and watching the Lakers play.

“I was very happy,” George said. “I couldn’t sleep at night.”

The boys created their posters and wrote their essays during winter break, and they were notified last week that they had been chosen among the eight winners from across the county.

Edgar Melik-Stepanyan, who teaches history at Toll Middle School, saw the competition advertised while he was watching the Lakers play on television.

He researched the contest online, and then told other teachers at the school about it. Melik-Stepanyan and Jonathan Wenn, who also teaches history, suggested to their students that they do the essay and poster for extra credit.

David, who is in Melik-Stepanyan’s class, and George, who is in Wenn’s class, were among the few students in their classes who followed through and completed the contest requirements, Wenn said.

Contestants had to write a 200-word essay about freedom, and create a piece of original, two-dimensional artwork that represents what freedom means to them.

George’s essay was impressive, Wenn said, because it acknowledged that freedom wasn’t limitless in the United States.

“Freedom can be taken away from you if you break the law,” George said, explaining one of the points raised in his essay.

In his essay, David wrote that freedom applies equally to all people in the United States.

“No matter what religion, what color, everyone should have the same rights,” David said.

Wenn said he was most impressed that the two boys took the initiative to finish an optional assignment. While other students didn’t bother to enter because they didn’t think they could win, George was ready to invest the time and take the chance, Wenn said.

“George was single-minded,” Wenn said. “He was going to do it. Now it’s made a class of believers.”

Wenn said the trip to the capital would be a great chance for the students to see up-close the institutions that preserve freedom in America.