Local Youth Needed to Illustrate Leadership Santa Maria Valley's Children's Book!

Leadership Santa Maria Valley Class of 2020 has authored a bilingual children’s book called, Strawberry Moon Says, Goodnight, as one of our Legacy Projects. We want to highlight the talent in the Santa Maria Valley and have agreed the book should be illustrated by kids in our community. We have been hosting an art contest with 4th through 12th graders through the generous efforts of Allan Hancock College, City of Santa Maria Recreation and Parks and several other organizations. With those efforts, we have handed out over 800 art templates for the contest. However, we have only received a handful back.

LSMV Class Member Diana Moffitt hands out colors supplies with art templates for their Children's Book, "Strawberry Moon Says Goodnight".

Our request to you, as a leader in the Santa Maria Valley, is to ask the parents around you if their children received an art template. If they did and are still interested in being part of the contest, please ask them to turn it in at the Abel Maldonado Youth Center or at the drive-up window at any Community Bank of Santa Maria or Mechanics Bank in Santa Maria. With our schools going virtual in the fall because of COVID-19, we need your help now.

If by chance, the parents you know have kids in grades 4th through 12th, have NOT received an art template and would like to enter to be part of this book, please have them stop by the Abel Maldonado Center for a template. For more details, please read this article, written by The Sun, at bit.ly/ LSMVBook

There will be a $100 Walmart gift card awarded to each of the 20 artists selected to be published in the book. Then, the winners will be entered into a drawing to win the Grand prize, a Nintendo Switch. **Please Note: Artwork must be drawn using only colored pencil and must be turned in with a parent release form.**

For more information on the mobile observatory part of our project, please read here: https://bit.ly/LSMVObservatory

If you have any questions about other ways that you can support this art contest, or the projects, please email us at artcontest2020@ gmail.com.