NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – A local student was named as one of three winners of the Virginia Lottery’s Thank a Teacher Art Contest Wednesday.
Sahasra Vishwanathan, a second grader at Kiln Creek Elementary School in Newport News, won in the contest’s elementary school category. She was among nearly 1,000 entries.
Sahasra was awarded a $150 gift card and $1,000 for her school’s art department and has been invited to the Thank a Teacher campaign kickoff event later this spring.
“Kiln Creek Elementary is very fortunate to have Sahasra as a member of our community,” said Kiln Creek Elementary Principal Ann P. Shoemaker. “She is an extremely talented artist. She also submitted entries in the PTA Reflections contest and placed in visual arts, photography, literature and dance.”
Winners from the elementary, middle and high school levels will have their artwork featured on thank-you notes that will be given to thousands of teachers across the Commonwealth during National Teacher Appreciation Week.
Thank a Teacher is a statewide campaign organized by the Virginia Lottery in partnership with the Virginia PTA and the Virginia Tourism Corporation. In its first two years, Virginians gave out more than 70,000 thank-you notes as part of the campaign.
The Virginia Lottery said Newport News Public Schools received more than $26.7 million in lottery funds for K-12 education last fiscal year.
Click here to see the complete list of Thank a Teacher Art Contest winners.
