Each year I enter my art students’ works to the Junior Federal Duck Stamp Contest. This is a win-win contest. Every entry achieves a certificate of participation from the Department of the Interior officially complete with student name. And often enough, they also send trinkets like thick rubber band bracelets. Cash prizes are also possible. In 2007, one of my kindergartners won $35!
This year I entered 521 gorgeous and wonderful art pieces. The Federal Government pays 98¢ for each piece. This money goes to the Federal Wildlife Refuges for pristine land purchase and more conservation educational programs.
Each elementary child student artist is capable of positively affecting their world. They do not have to wait to be 18 or older to make a difference. This is the lesson I teach them. And they have made a difference this year through this contest.
What inspired me to offer this program was an artist. His name is “Ding Darling“. He was just another outdoor artist in the 1930’s who noticed the mass amount of ducks being shot down by hunters. He saw the flagrant waste of life. He became concerned that if the trend of duck hunting was not regulated, the ducks would become extinct. This was his sight and foresight. President Franklin D. Roosevelt took interest in the political cartoons drawn by Ding Darling and appointed him head of this contest.
I live in Florida. I moved to Florida 27 years ago when wildlife lived here. Songs from birds, frogs and lizards sweetened the airwaves. Tropical breezes such as the Tradewinds blew through the land so that the only cooling need were the jalousie windows, not air conditioning.
As an outdoor artist, I saw for myself the degradation of this pristine and wild land. Too many of my oil paintings didn’t get completed because of the speed that trees and land got demolished for concrete structures.
Offering this contest to the entire student body of artists was a nightmare in its administration of waivers signed and accounting for each piece. The paperwork organization would have overwhelmed me and kept me from achieving the contest deadline were it not for the wonderful mom volunteers. Their hard work and painstaking dedication merged with mine. Each entry was wonderful.
The end result is not the winning of the contest. Now the students know about the birds they see in their backyards. Now the students know about how artists can make huge differences. Now the students know that however young, they can positively affect our world.
Kindergartner Artist – the Canvasback Duck