RICHMOND, Va. -- A Richmond middle school student received a big surprise Monday afternoon when she was honored as one of three winners of the Virginia Lottery Thank a Teacher Art Contest.
Cleo Scott, a seventh-grader at Albert Hill Middle School, won in the contest’s middle school category.
She was one of the nearly 1,000 students who submitted art work to be featured on thank-you notes that the Virginia Lottery will send to teachers across the state for National Teacher Appreciation week this year.
Cleo was surprised Monday afternoon while in art class.
She was presented with a $150 gift card and $1,000 for her school’s art department.
“I was really excited that not only the students get money for making cards for all the teachers, but also the art teacher who influences the student gets a lot of the money as well, which is great,” said Cleo.
Cleo said the money means more opportunities to express herself and money for her school to buy supplies.
“I was really excited that if I did win this award, we could buy more water color paper, we could do more clay projects, which I love doing that kind of stuff,” she added.
Cleo’s winning artwork shows four diverse children holding hands, which symbolizes unity, dresses as the kind of career they want pursue as an adult. The card has the caption, “artists, dreamers, doers, leaders brought to you by amazing teachers…”
The middle schooler says art is in her future and she has dreams to be a graphic designer or animator.
The Virginia Lottery Thank a Teacher Art Contest is organized by the Virginia Lottery, Virginia PTA and the Virginia Tourism Corporation.