‘Poison is a Pest’: Peter’s Poster & the Pursuit of his Passions
In a fun coincidence at an education event, we met a winner of our poster contest from 30 years ago! We sat down with Peter to learn about his experience as a 3rd grader in the ’90s, and to reflect on how winning the poster contest shaped his career and passions today.
Give me a little bit of background info about you, Peter, in 2025.
I work at Gonzaga University as a Digital Content Strategist. I do the content for the Gonzaga website. It’s a cool mix of writing for the website, designing pages, doing different digital communications work. I live in Spokane. My wife and I had our 1st kid 9 months ago, so that’s our main focus. My hobbies are playing soccer, skiing, and walking the dog.
Maybe you’ll have a future poster contest winner!
That’s true. He has some big shoes to fill.
Set the scene for us. Tell us about Peter in the 3rd grade. 
I always really enjoyed art. And I did art throughout school, and even now there’s definitely a visual design element to a lot of the web work I do. I was always pretty creative. As far as this competition goes, I remember having fun with the design. I still remember, [the judges] really liked my little slogan I came up: the alliteration ‘Poison is a Pest.’ I was always the artistic kid. And it was really cool to get recognized for it on such a big stage.
I remember that when I was in the 3rd grade, DARE and ’Just Say No to Drugs’ was a big thing. So, all the other kids slogans were, ‘Say No to Poison.’ I do remember feeling like mine was unique.
Where did you get the idea for your poster? Did anything inspire you?
My dad was really big on reading, so I think I had an appreciation for language. In my head I was like, ‘Oh, alliteration is really cool!’ So having an appreciation for language and playing with alliteration and slogans was my big idea at the time.
What do you think made your poster stand out?
I think the slogan and making the poster symmetrical. And, I think turning the poison bottles into villains with the pointed eyebrows was a creative idea.
Tell me about what it was like when you won. Were you the talk of the town? Did you have a big celebration?
My family was really excited and really supportive. And then actually seeing my poster as a billboard in downtown Spokane… you just don’t think when you’re a kid that you could ever do something that would be featured in the adult world like that.
Back when I was in 3rd grade, not everyone had a nice camera on their phone like now. So, my dad actually brought me to the billboard with his friend who had a nice camera, and there was a whole photo shoot. It was really special to be recognized.
My wife, her friend, and I were just talking about the contest. They were like, ‘Oh, I remember that when I was a kid! I tried so hard.’ There really was a tiny percentage that got selected to win. So, you definitely felt that you got this coveted thing.
This is a silly question, but would you say this contest changed your life?
I do think that’s a fair question. I work in marketing and communications, and my favorite part about my work is that I get to be creative and make something with messaging and visuals that resonates with people. I always enjoyed art and being creative before. Anytime you have external affirmation and recognition, it makes you actually believe that what you feel about yourself, other people recognize in you, too. And so I think it encouraged me to lean into that. I did art throughout middle school and high school, and then ended up doing a career where I could still get to be creative. So yeah, it did have an impact on my life, and shaped how I think about myself and what I would want to do.
We are currently in the midst of this year’s poster contest. For all of our artists that are out there working on their posters, what advice would you give them?
Trust your gut, be creative. With artistic endeavors, getting inspired by other things is a good thing. With me, I anthropomorphized the poison bottles. I love Disney movies and Pixar movies where things are anthropomorphized. So, if there are stories or movies that you really enjoy, or artistic depictions you like, use them as inspiration. And don’t be afraid to be creative and unique.
Is there anything you would redo about your poster or your experience if you had a chance, 30 years later, to resubmit?
No, there’s definitely nothing I would redo about the poster. And I’m really glad we got the photos, so I feel like we savored the moment. I guess if I were to tell myself something back then, it would be to soak it all in. This is a really fun time, and it doesn’t happen all the time that you get recognized or celebrated in a big way.
Is there anything else you want to share about your experience or any advice?
Just one other piece of advice: it’s good to put the screens down and just draw and make stuff.
Peter will be one of our final judges for this year’s contest, so take his advice to heart! Learn more about the contest and how to submit an entry here.