Sheila Evan of Goodnews Bay with her new mountain bike.

While the Alaska Migratory Bird Calendar Contest is certainly a statewide event, the communities served by Togiak NWR had particular reason to be proud of their students efforts for the recently completed 2009 contest, as Togiak received a record number of entries submitted for the local judging portion of the contest.

478 total entries were received by the Togiak office. These entries came from eight different villages and included 125 literature entries and 353 poster entries, displaying a wide and varied range of talent and creativity from hundreds of area students. This year’s theme was “Many Birds, Many Teachers” and participating students did a masterful job of portraying, through both word and picture, the tremendous variety of migratory birds found throughout Alaska, as well as the many different avenues available to individuals to learn about them.

Several full time staff members, as well as Togiak RITs, spent parts of December and January presenting to area schools about Alaska’s migratory birds and visiting with them about this year’s theme and how it ties to local communities.

Effort and success didn’t stop at the local level either. Four Togiak Refuge area students were chosen as winners at the statewide competition, including the Grand Prize literature winner, Sheila Evan of Goodnews Bay. Sheila’s entry- as well as the names of all local and statewide winners- can be viewed on the External Affairs Education and Outreach website (http://alaska.fws.gov/external/education/calendar.htm). For her efforts, Sheila was presented with a brand new bicycle at a school wide ceremony held in mid-May.