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A drawing of a downy woodpecker by an elementary student from Franklin is featured in materials designed to promote the Second Annual Oil Region Birding Festival. Raleigh Schofield, daughter of Doug and Piper Schofield and now a fifth grade student at Sandycreek Elementary School in Venango County, entered her drawing in a poster contest that was conducted last year by the Oil Region Alliance of Business, Industry & Tourism. The poster was one of five selected as finalists in the contest and as such it was enlarged, matted and framed. It was then displayed at the Transit Fine Arts Gallery in Oil City. Attendees of last year's birding festival chose it as the winner of the "People's Choice" Award and the drawing is now being used in materials to promote the Second Annual Oil Region Birding Festival, which will be held May 2, 3, 4. Two art contests are now underway to involve the area youth, the next generation of birders, in the Second Annual Oil Region Birding Festival. Fourth and fifth grade students may enter the poster contest, which has the theme, "The Birds in Your Backyard." This is the same contest that Raleigh entered last year. Students in grades six through eight may enter a new contest this year, a mixed media contest, which has the theme, "Bird Day." Both contests are open to all public, private and home-schooled students in the Allegheny-Clarion Valley, Cranberry, Franklin, Oil City, Titusville or Valley Grove School District. Five finalists will be selected for each of the contests. Their art will be displayed at the Transits Fine Arts Gallery in Oil City during the month of April. The artists who have created the finalists' entries will be invited to attend the Birder's Banquet as guests of the Oil Region Alliance. The dinner will be held at Venango Campus in Oil City on May 3, and feature a talk by Paul Baicich, a renowned author and tour guide. His keynote address is titled, "Nifty Nesters - What we know and Don't Know about Birds." For additional information about the art contests, or the Second Annual Oil Region Birding Festival, please call Toni Kresinski, Events Manager, at 800-483-6264, ext. 110.
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