Meadow Lakes fourth-graders win six duck stamp awards

A male and female buffle head swim side by side while a Canada goose flies across the sky, wings outspread.

Mrs. Zimmer's fourth-grade classroom at Meadow Lakes Elementary is alive with waterfowl.

Colorful renditions of everything from king and spectacled eiders to mergansers were on display on a table in the class, and six of Lauri Zimmer's students stood nearby, proudly holding their red, blue and green ribbons. The fourth-graders this spring entered the Federal Junior Duck Stamp contest and won first place, second place and four honorable mentions in the statewide category for grades four through six, which included around 500 entries.

"I've never done this before, and I didn't think I'd do this good," said April Morlock, who took honorable mention for her buffle heads.

In addition to ribbons, the students also received T-shirts, ball caps, pins and other prizes from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Kiersten Wilber, who took first place for her king eider, attended the awards ceremony in Fairbanks earlier this month and brought the prizes back for her classmates.

In addition to April and Kiersten's awards, Arial Seltenreich won second place and Matthew Estrada, Brogan Putnam and Janae Bower all received honorable mentions.

While Kiersten said the ceremony was exciting, it was nothing new for her. She took a first place last year as well for her drawing of a harlequin duck. After days of anxiously waiting for news on this year's entries, Kiersten responded with an enthusiastic "YES!" when her teacher informed her that she had received another first place.

Her classmates were equally pleased.

"It's really exciting to know your art is going to be seen by all these people," said Arial, who took second place for her pair of spectacled eiders.

The first-, second- and third-place entries will go on tour around the state. Last year, the art was shown at several sites in Anchorage, but this year Zimmer said she is hoping it can be put on display somewhere in the Valley as well.

This is the eighth year that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has offered the Junior Duck Stamp Program. The best of show chosen from all winners in each state is used for a duck stamp, which is purchased by hunters, as required by law, and by stamp collectors.

In addition to raising money for wildlife conservation through stamp sales, the contest is also designed to introduce school-age children to migratory birds and their habitat and pair science with art.

"They're putting talent and thinking together," Zimmer said.

The students learn about everything from where ducks live to how to use line, shape and color mixing in art. Zimmer's class used colored pencils and watercolors for their work.

The contest allows students to choose from a wide variety of waterfowl as their subjects, including mallards, wigeons, scoters, goldeneyes, swans and geese.

"I just like the beautiful ones . . . the ones that are really colorful," Kiersten said when asked why she chose the harlequin last year and the king eider this year.

Janae said she chose the flying Canada goose because she knew it wouldn't be easy.

"I like to be challenged by drawing," she said.

No matter what the poses or the species, though, Zimmer said her students put a lot of time and effort into their projects. In class, the students worked on the art for more than a week and many of them took the projects home at night as well. Several of them wore right through the art paper as they tried to make changes, and so had to start over, but they said it was worth it.

The students used photographs and drawings of the birds to get ideas about how to do their own pictures. The class also visited Foster's Taxidermy, where they were able to see mounted waterfowl, including king eiders.

Kiersten said this inspired her to draw the bird for this year's contest, even though she has never seen one alive and up close before.

Kiersten said she had never seen a harlequin duck either before she entered a drawing of one last spring. But later that year she saw 10 of the birds while visiting Halibut Cove.

Many of the students say the contest has made them watch more for ducks and other waterfowl as they drive past lakes and ponds. Zimmer pointed out that the contest coincides nicely with the annual migration of waterfowl through the Valley in the spring.

"They're all showing up now," she said, gesturing out her window toward the many lakes near the school.

Zimmer is hoping to make even better use of the school's location with the help of state and federal grants. With a nature trail on the 20 acres behind the school, classes would be able to walk to a nearby lake and see waterfowl and other wildlife for themselves.

"We've got the habitat right here," Zimmer said.