Florida Junior Duck Stamp Judging @ J.N. Ding Darling NWR

Sanibel, FL (76 degrees, cloudy, balmy)

Last fall John and I came back to the refuge for Ding Days, a week long celebration. We attended the Duck Stamp presentation and met the winner of the Federal Duck Stamp and Junior Duck Stamp competition.  (click on link to read this post)

On Thursday I was able to watch the Junior Duck Stamp judging for the state of Florida which is held here at the refuge.  It was so interesting.  Over 3000 children in Florida competed. and the drawings have been flooding in by mail all winter.  Our ranger, Becky Wolff and her staff, do an amazing job coordinating this event and encouraging teachers and students to participate.  This year there were over 3000 entries, a new record!  Becky was featured on the local news a couple of days ago.  Her enthusiasm for the program is so evident.  Click here to see the broadcast.

The original Junior Duck Stamp competition started on Sanibel in 1989 and is now a national competition. The winner of the national competition is made into a stamp which is sold by the U.S. Post Office for $5.  Proceeds from the sale of the Junior Duck Stamps are returned to the states for environmental and conservation educational programs.   (The first Federal Duck Stamp, a different competition for adults, was designed by J.N. Ding Darling in 1934)

Junior Duck Stamp Judges and Becky Wolff

There were five judges who look at all the entries.  The drawings were displayed by an age range on long tables and each judge was given poker chips to place on their favorite ones.  These were collected and the narrowed down age group are again reviewed by the judges. There are several rounds of this and then the judges give a point score for the remaining twenty finalists of that age group.

Kindergarten - Third grade

K-3rd grade

Judges choosing their favorites (initial round)

Patty and Jack (resident volunteers) helping Becky 

Grade 7-9

Judges looking carefully at the top five finalists

Then at the end the top entries from each age group were again judged and a best of show was determined.  Judges used magnifying glasses to determine how it would look as a duck stamp.  Bird ID books were available for reference.

The best of show was  determined and the winning artists name is  Megan Zou.    She is  12 year old middle school student from Miami. Her winning drawing was of a Wood Duck and it is stunning. Her drawing will now be entered in the national contest.  Good luck Megan.  It sure looks like a winner.

Junior Duck Stamp Winner - Wood Duck

Finalist (all ages)

We were all very impressed by the entries.  I'm so glad that I didn't have to judge since they all looked like winners to me.   

Here is some general information and rules for the contest -  website.