Contest information
› Who can enter: Any elementary school student in grades 1-5. One entry per child.› Deadline: Entries must be received by 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 22.› Grand prize: The winner will receive a cash prize of $25 plus an arts package and goody bag from co-sponsors ArtsBuild, Chattanooga’s Kids on the Block, Creative Discovery Museum.› Entry format: Use an 8 1/2- by 11-inch piece of unlined paper. Entry should have the child’s name, age, address, telephone number, grade and school printed on the back. A teacher’s name is also helpful.› Mail or hand-deliver to: Wrapping Paper Contest, Chattanooga Times Free Press, 400 E. 11th St., Chattanooga TN 37403.› Information: Call Sara Jackson at 423-757-6594 or email her at saraj@timesfreepress.com.Helpful hints› Be original.› Use bright colors.› Fill the entire page.› Choose paint, crayon, chalk, markers or pens, construction paper or other creative materials.
Tally Pierce was the winner of the 2016 Times Free Press Wrapping Paper Design Contest.A holiday wrapping paper design contest for elementary schoolchildren in the area has become a much-anticipated tradition at the Times Free Press. Since its beginnings in 2002, it was lovingly overseen by longtime employee Lin C. Parker.
Parker died in September and, to honor her, the contest will continue as the Lin C. Parker Wrapping Paper Design Contest.
Parker reveled in opening the hundreds of contest entries that came into the paper each November and took great care in taping each to the large glass walls that surround the conference rooms in the newsroom. An artist herself, Parker would hang each submission with the care and precision of a museum or gallery curator, and newspaper employees and visitors delighted in seeing the colorful works of art.
Students in grades 1-5 may enter this year’s contest through Wednesday, Nov. 22. The winning design will be printed as a real sheet of wrapping paper that runs in the Times Free Press on Sunday, Dec. 10. The design also will be available as a gift-wrapping choice in Kids on the Block wrapping stations at Hamilton Place mall from Dec. 8 through Christmas Eve.
Ten finalists also will be chosen for our Readers Choice contest, in which readers can vote for their favorite at www.timesfreepress.com from Wednesday, Nov. 29, through Tuesday, Dec. 5. Finalists will be displayed in an art exhibit at the Creative Discovery Museum.
The contest is co-sponsored by Chattanooga’s Kids on the Block, ArtsBuild and Creative Discovery Museum.