Art Contest winners announced!

The Virginia Lottery’s fifth annual Thank a Teacher Art Contest ran from December 13, 2021, through January 31, 2022. During that time, the Lottery received nearly 300 submissions, and, from those submissions, a panel of judges selected three winners: one each from elementary, middle and high school. In March, the Lottery surprised each of the winners at school. Check out the video below to see those surprise presentations.

Video available here.

The winners of the fifth annual Thank a Teacher Art Contest are:

Elementary: Nitha Nithin, 4th grader at Coventry Elementary School in Yorktown, Va.

Middle: Jocelyn Turman, 7th grader at Edward Drew Middle School in Stafford County, Va.

High: Giello Albert Capate, 12th grader at Appomattox Regional Governor’s School in Petersburg, Va.

Each winner received a $150 gift card from the Virginia Lottery. The winning designs will be featured on thousands of thank-you notes that will be sent to teachers across Virginia during Teacher Appreciation Week. Each winning school’s art department also received $1,000 from the Lottery and $1,000 in supplies from The Supply Room.

Now that April is here, the Virginia Lottery is encouraging people across the commonwealth to send personalized thank-you notes to K-12 public school teachers as part of the Thank a Teacher program. Teachers will receive the notes during Teacher Appreciation Week, May 2 – 6, 2022, and can use a unique code included on each note to enter for a chance to win a Virginia vacation, a gift card and $2,500 in supplies for the teacher’s school.

Digital thank-you notes can be sent by visiting thankateacherva.com. There are also hard-copy notes available, which schools and PTAs can request from the Virginia Lottery.

For more information about the Thank a Teacher program, visit thankateacherva.com.

Last updated: 4/15/2022