Date:  May 30, 2003 
Contact: Irene Cromer
(703) 791-8720

This years Virginia’s Best of Show winner of the 2003 Federal Junior Duck Stamp Conservation and Design Contest is Robert Swisher, a senior at Woodbridge Senior High School.  His picture of a matched pair of pintail ducks is done in colored pencil.  Robert’s duck picture, along with other state winning duck pictures, will travel around the country for a year. 
Robert entered the Junior Duck Stamp contest last year in Cheryl Saggers’ art class and won a second place ribbon.  This year his goal was to do better.  He studied last year’s winning entries and added more color, detail and emotional impact to his work. 

 Brittany Felter, also a student in Saggers’ art class, took a photograph of a goose and painted a picture of it in watercolor and watercolor pencil.  She received an honorable mention award and ribbon for her entry.

 Six Potomac Senior High School students in Sharon Boyle’s art classes have also received recognition.  Ryan Harrison, an Art 1 student, received a second place ribbon, and Jahmal Bazil, an Art 2 student, received a third place ribbon.  Ryan and Jahmal also received sketch books from the state of Virginia to continue their artwork.  Four Honorable Mention ribbons were also awarded to Jonathan Bazil, Jean Paul Utshudi, Amanda Kingsley and Edgard Chillin.

 The Federal Junior Duck Stamp program grew out of a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and was developed to use art to teach the importance of conserving wetlands and to expand the knowledge of the Federal Duck Stamp as a conservation program. The program targets youth from kindergarten through high school in public and private schools with activities that lead to a greater awareness of the nation's living resources and conservation methods.  Each year students submit original colored pencil compositions portraying different species of wild ducks and geese.  The national winner’s artwork is made into the 2003-2004 Federal Junior Duck Stamp, which the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Federal Duck Stamp Office makes available for $5 to stamp collectors and conservationists.