Salmon Fest poster winner announced

The Wenatchee River Salmon Festival proudly announces that Halla Hafermann, a student from Mrs. Hill's third grade class at Osborn Elementary School in Leavenworth. is the grand prize winner of the 2009 Wenatchee River Salmon Festival Poster Contest. This year there were over 950 posters submitted from 25 North Central Washington schools, the largest number of poster entries in the 19 years of festival history.

Ms. Hafermann's poster focused her artwork around this year's theme "Salmon Song" as her primary subject matter. The posters are judged on the basis of creativity, artwork, slogan and theme. The winning poster is then incorporated into the "o-FISH-al" festival publicity poster, distributed throughout the region the month before the festival. Additional honors for the young artist include a gift certificate for art supplies from McDee's Art Center.

Congratulations also go to this year's runners pp: Raja Abouammo (Cascade Elementary, East Wenatchee), Molly Morgan (John Newberry Elementary, Wenatchee), Veronica Joya (Lewis & Clark Elementary, Wenatchee), and Marjie Sabo (Mission View Elementary, Wenatchee). All winners receive specially printed T-shirts depicting their artwork, and their classroom teachers receive certificates for art supplies, courtesy of McDee's Art Center.

The Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest and the Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery host the Wenatchee River Salmon Festival at the Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery. Salmon Fest is a free, award-winning festival and will run September 17-20 this year. Family days are Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. There is no admission charge. For more information go to: www.salmonfest.org or call (509) 548-6662.