Picking the winners of the coloring contest is one of the last things we do before finalizing every issue of Kids VT. Seven Days art director Diane Sullivan has drawn the coloring prompt for each issue since 2011, typically a line drawing of an animal. On a Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon, the week before publication, she lays out all the entries, grouped by age, on office chairs and tables. The submissions — often numbering 100 or more — sometimes overflow onto the floor.
Then she prints out a dozen or so score sheets and invites whoever is in the office that day to be a judge. That includes writers, editors, proofreaders, graphic designers, sales reps and our business manager. Given the number of entries and the range of judges and their tastes, it’s unusual for anyone to win more than once.
But after we put out the Giving Issue at the end of 2025, I realized that Oona Raven Russell-McDade, our winner in the ages 9 to 12 category, had actually won twice before — in the past year! I invited Oona, a sixth grader at Orchard Valley Waldorf School in East Montpelier, to explain how she approaches each entry.
How many times have you entered the coloring contest?
I have won the coloring contest three times, but I have been submitting my art since I was about 4 years old! For a while I just got a lot of honorable mentions, but when I was 10 I started actually winning.
The contest prompt is a very simple image, but each of your entries has a specific theme. How do you come up with these themes?
For each of my art pieces I never really had an idea to start with; I would just begin by looking at the position of the animals in the coloring page and make a story out of it.
What do you use to color your entries?
In my art room I have a big box of mixed art materials. I would take down the box and use a combination of glitter pens, colored pencils, Blick Studio markers and fine-tipped Sharpies. One time I thought about painting one of the creatures, but it didn’t seem like it would work because of the thinness of the newspaper, and it seemed like it might damage the page.
Have you taken any art classes?
I go to a Waldorf school, so we draw and paint every day, and that has definitely been part of my interest in art. I’ve also watched some videos about how to draw and got inspiration from those. I’ve also gone to some art camps. But mostly I taught myself and think up my own ideas for my art.
What’s your favorite thing to draw?
I don’t have a favorite thing to draw. I vary between manga, abstract art and acrylic painting. I also recently got into DIY doll making!
Any advice for other young artists?
Something I’ve learned about art contests is, it’s not about winning. I didn’t give up when my art didn’t win; I kept drawing because I love to draw. I was doing it because I loved coloring in the pages. And I want to thank the Kids VT coloring contest because it gives kids a lot of inspiration for art projects on rainy days, and a fun side part is that you might win!
The original print version of this article was headlined “Getting Creative | A Woodbury sixth grader has won the Kids VT coloring contest three times in the past year. How did she do it?”
This article appears in Kids VT Money Issue • 2026.
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