Sara Rivero Afonso, a 5th-grade student at Almas de San Bartolomé de Tirajana School, has won the regional phase of the national competition "What is a King for You?" and will be received in audience by the monarch at El Pardo Palace. The talent and creativity of young Gran Canarian Sara Rivero Afonso have been recognized in the 44th edition of the school competition "What is a King for You?", where she emerged as the winner in the Canary Islands. Her work, a bust of King Felipe VI in full dress uniform, will allow her to represent the archipelago in the audience that the monarch will offer to the 20 selected schoolchildren across the country.
Sara presented a sculpture made of paper pulp, depicting King Felipe VI as Captain General of the Army. Beside him are the crown and the Spanish flag, symbols that, as she explained in her statement, represent the monarch's unity and service to the country.
“For me, a king is like a leader who unites us and makes us proud to be Spanish,” wrote the Maspalomas student in the literary section of her essay. The audience with the monarch will take place at El Pardo Palace (Madrid), on a date yet to be determined, once all the regional exhibitions have concluded. There, Sara will be able to personally present her work to the Head of State, alongside the other winners from other regions and from the national Special Education category.
In this edition, 415 Canarian schoolchildren from 25 primary, secondary, and special education schools participated. During the event, the 40 finalist works, selected from 15 schools on the islands, were also exhibited at the regional government headquarters. The competition, promoted by the Spanish Institutional Foundation (FIES) and sponsored by the Orange Foundation (now integrated into MasOrange), seeks to bring young people closer to the figure of the Crown through artistic creation, digital innovation, and critical thinking. In addition to traditional works such as painting or sculpture, the contest focuses on digital formats such as storytelling, music videos, robotics, and 3D animation, thus promoting the development of technological skills and an entrepreneurial spirit among schoolchildren.
