With this contest, the Gold Country Stage busses will become mobile art galleries. Three Nevada County student winners will receive the honor of having their artwork displayed in a Gold Country Stage bus and published in the New Family Post. The students with winning entries will also receive a special bus ride in the bus where their poster is displayed. The first place winner will receive a one-month family bus pass. The second place winner will receive fifteen one-day passes. The third place winner will receive five one-day passes. All three winners will have their pictures taken together for the New Family Post. Runners up will have their original posters included in the mobile art gallery on the Gold Country Stage. Scanned copies of posters will be displayed on the New Family Post website at www.NewFamilyPost.org.

Be Like Us . . . Ride the Bus Poster Contest Rules

Goal:
To celebrate public transportation and raise awareness of its benefits. Riding the bus can be fun! We encourage all local school districts to involve their students in this exciting event. We are looking forward to receiving many innovative, student-created posters. Plan to enter now!

Eligibility:
All K- 8 grade students in Nevada County school districts that attend public and private schools, or youth organizations are eligible to enter. Please note that any immediate family member of a Nevada County Department of Transportation employee and members of Aikido’Ka will not be considered eligible for final awards.

Theme:
All posters must follow the theme “Be like us ... Ride the bus!” Students are encouraged to share their views on the theme.

Poster Requirements:
Posters created by students must be their own original artwork and the exclusive work of the student entering the contest in idea, design and execution. Designs may not incorporate any copyrighted characters (i.e., comic and/or television characters), photographs, and magazine or newspaper illistrations. All artwork should be positive in approach, with at least a part of a bus present in the poster. The poster design may incorporate freehand drawn letters only. Stenciled, pre-printed, manufactured stick-on or press-on letters or tracings may not be used. Lettering should be clearly legible, even if used as part of the poster design. Posters may be created by groups of students. Groups are limited to 3 students. One submission per student.

Materials:
Students may use a variety of media, such as watercolor, pen and ink, crayon, markers, etc. Brighter colors, however, reproduce better for the New Family Post, light pencil marks will not show up. Keep in mind posters are intended to be on public display, and should be easy to see or read. Designs should be submitted on quality tag, poster illustration board or heavy paper. Construction paper may be used but winning entries must be mounted on quality tag poster. Lamination is not permitted, and will disqualify the poster.

Size & Layout:

Paper size: 11” X 36”
Image size: 10.5” X 36”
Landscape Layout only! Landscape fits inside the bus display frames.

Entry Procedure:

Each poster must have the Release Form securely fastened to the back of the poster. A poster not accompanied by a completed Release Form will not be eligible for further judging. (If the poster is a group effort, a release for each child is required.) The posters, with Release Forms, must be mailed or delivered (by appointment only) by September 15, 2009 to:

The New Family Post
Aikido’Ka, LLC
142 E. McKnight Way
Grass Valley, CA 95945

Do NOT roll posters. They must be mailed/delivered flat.
All entries will become the property of the Nevada County Department of Transportation and the New Family Post, and will not be returned.

Judging Criteria:

1. Clear message conveyed by the text and artwork;
2. The poster theme “Be like us ... Ride the bus!” is addressed;
3. Creativity, originality and artistic quality;
4. Visual clarity - easily read; and
5. Bright and colorful.

Awards:
Each participant should receive a Certificate of Recognition (pdf, coming soon) to acknowledge their effort. Please print as many as you need for your students.

We hope your school or organization will participate in this worthwhile event and look forward to working with you! If you have any questions, please call Rachelle Bloksberg at (530) 273-2727.

We will organize the winning posters by the bus they are displayed on so students know which bus to ride to see their poster.