Alta students design patriotic button for new library fundraiser

What started as a K-4 art contest became part of Alta’s push to define the image of its future library. Karsyn Ambert won first place in the Alta Community Library Patriotic Button Contest, and her drawing will be turned into an America’s 250th Birthday button that the library plans to sell as a fundraiser.

The contest drew work from students in grades kindergarten through fourth with help from art teacher Elizabeth Peterson. After the Alta Community Library Steering Committee reviewed the submissions, Zoey Corder and Lupita Zavala were named runners-up. All of the drawings were scheduled to be displayed on Alta’s Main Street before July 4, giving the project a public role in the town’s summer celebrations, not just a place in a classroom or library file.

The button contest fits into a larger effort to secure a permanent home for the library after more than 20 years of sharing space with the Alta-Aurelia Community School District. That arrangement ended when the 28E agreement was not renewed, forcing the library into temporary quarters at Alta VFW Post 6172 on the corner of Lake Street and Hwy. 7 while leaders kept searching for a long-term answer. The library has also been linked to the future building discussed for 204 E. Seventh St.

Funding remains the central question. Alta voters rejected a library bond measure in 2025, and library director Gigi Nelson said the board would discuss a “Plan B” that could pair city borrowing with private fundraising through the Friends of Alta Foundation. The Alta City Council has already approved a site in Alta City Park for the future library, but the button contest shows the project is still relying on visible, small-scale efforts to build momentum.

In that sense, the contest was more than a children’s art exercise. It became a public statement about who gets to shape Alta’s civic look during patriotic season, and how a small library project is trying to keep its place in the center of town.