Art Contest winners announced!

In January, the Virginia Lottery hosted its third annual Thank a Teacher Art Contest to find the perfect student artwork for the 2020 Thank a Teacher thank-you notes. For the third installment of the contest, the Lottery received several hundred entries and, with the help of a blue-ribbon panel of judges, selected one winner each from the elementary, middle and high school levels:

Sarah K., 4th grader at Potomac Elementary in Prince George

Alaina C., 6th grader at Oak Hill Elementary in Fairfax

Tiana C., senior at Chesterfield Career and Technical Center-Courthouse in Chesterfield

In previous years of the Thank a Teacher Art Contest, the Lottery visited schools to conduct a surprise presentation during a school assembly for the winning student-artist and the winner's teacher. Since that wasn’t possible this year, the Lottery had to get creative when it came to how to surprise the three winners. With Virginia’s students and teachers busy working and learning from home, the Lottery decided to bring the surprise directly to the three winners by packaging up the printed notecards and an oversized version of the notecard to send to the winning students’ parents. With the help of the students’ families, we surprised them at home and asked their parents to record it!

Each winner also received a $150 Visa® gift card from the Virginia Lottery. The winning designs will be featured on thousands of digital thank-you notes that will be sent to teachers across Virginia during National Teacher Appreciation Week, May 4 – 8. The winning schools’ art departments also will receive $1,000 from the Lottery and $1,000 in prizes from The Supply Room.

To send a personalized digital thank-you note featuring the winning artwork to a special teacher in your life, visit www.thankateacherva.com, and select the option to Send a Note. Teachers will receive the notes during Teacher Appreciation Week, May 4 – 8, and can use a unique code included in the digital note to enter a drawing for a chance to win a memorable Virginia vacation courtesy of the Virginia Lottery and $5,000 in supplies for the teacher’s school from The Supply Room.

_{Last updated 4/10/20}