The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay has announced its annual Youth Art Contest designed to showcase what the watershed’s rivers mean to students.

Entires must be postmarked by April 1.

Throughout June and July 2006, the Alliance will coordinate week-long paddling Sojourns on four of the Bay’s largest tributaries – the Susquehanna, Potomac, Patuxent and James Rivers.

The winning entry will be featured as the logo for the 2006 River Sojourns and will be used on commemorative sojourn t-shirts distributed to sojourn participants. The winner, along with one parent or guardian, will receive a t-shirt and be invited on a 2 night, 3 day paddling segment on one of the 2006 sojourns. Two runner-ups will be awarded one day passage on a 2006 sojourn.

The art contest is open to all elementary, middle and high school students.

Submissions should be made on white paper and may be created with watercolors, acrylics, crayons, markers, colored pencils, pastels or other flat media without text. Pictures should be colorful 8.5 x 11 inch images that depict the spirit of the sojourn down the major Bay’s rivers.

Entries should be sent to: Sojourn Art Contest, Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, 3310 Market Street, Suite A, Camp Hill, PA 17011. Please include name, address, telephone number, school, grade, and date of birth on the back of the submission. There is a limit of one submission per person.

For sixteen years, the Alliance has worked with local river conservation organizations across the watershed to hold river sojourns that celebrate the rich history, culture and ecology of the rivers that make the Chesapeake Bay unique.

This year the Susquehanna Sojourn will be held from June 14 to 22 starting in Berwick and ending at Safe Harbor.

For more information contact: Deborah Rudy, Susquehanna Sojourn Coordinator, by sending email to: drudy@acb-online.org or calling 717-737-8622.

3/3/2006