SAVE THE FROGS! Art Contest

S U M M A R Y

Contest / Scholarship

Type:

Art

Description:

Introduction
Amphibian populations worldwide are in the midst of a mass extinction crisis, yet most people are completely unaware! We need your help in getting the word out.

The SAVE THE FROGS! Art Contest invites you to create your coolest frog artwork. The contest will raise awareness of the amphibian extinction problem by getting people involved and interested, and the artwork will be used on t-shirts, stickers, posters, coffee mugs, hats, and in greeting cards and books, to both publicize our cause and raise money for SAVE THE FROGS! amphibian conservation efforts.

Who can enter?
Anybody! We encourage students and teachers to get their art classes involved on Save The Frogs Day - April 30th, 2010. We encourage amateur and professional artists and graphic designers to take part as well. And the more countries represented the better! Did we mention that it is indeed FREE to enter the contest?

Prizes
Did we mention that there will be prizes?

The Grand Prize Winner will
:

(1) Receive $100 CASH (or check!).

(2) Receive $50 worth of "Frog Cash" to be used for any of the cool, environmentally-friendly merchandise in the SAVE THE FROGS! Gift Center.

(3) Become an official judge of next year's SAVE THE FROGS! Art Contest.

(4) See their winning artwork placed at the top of this page for the duration of their reign (until next year's contest winner is announced).

(5) Receive frog fame.

(6) Receive a Critter Skimmer (US and Canadian residents only!)

Category Winners will
:

(1) Win $35 CASH (or check!).

(2) Receive $30 worth of "Frog Cash" to be used for any of the cool, environmentally-friendly merchandise in the SAVE THE FROGS! Gift Center.

And to top it off: the Grand Prize Winner and Category Winners may all see their artwork featured on products we sell in the SAVE THE FROGS! Gift Center or in the SAVE THE FROGS! Cafepress store. Contest winners and honorable mentions will also be acknowledged on this website, along with a picture of their artwork.

Categories
Category winners will be chosen from the following categories. Note however that the Grand Prize Winner may be chosen from any category.

(1) Under 10 years old

(2) 10-13 years old

(3) 13-17 years old

(4) 18 and older

Artwork may be hand-drawn or digitally produced. It can feature frogs, toads, salamander, newts or caecilians. It can be full-color or black & white (e.g. one-color frog outlines of the type used for a coloring book. You can even draw a logo if you like. It's up to you!

Contest Rules
(1) Submitted artwork must be your original creation!

(2) No tracing of others' artwork.

(3) You may submit as many entries as you wish.

(4) All artwork must refer to SAVE THE FROGS! by including, visibly and legibly
:
EITHER

(a) the phrase SAVE THE FROGS! (capitalized, with an exclamation point!),

OR

(b) the phrase savethefrogs.com (lowercase with NO exclamation point)

OR

c) both SAVE THE FROGS! and savethefrogs.com (as in the logo below).

These two phrases can appear on the same design, or alternatively you could put one phrase each on two related pieces of artwork which could work well as the front and back of a t-shirt, or on the outside and inside of greeting cards, for example.

(5) Submission of artwork constitutes your agreement to the Art Contest Terms & Conditions. Please read these over, as they describe your rights to the submitted artwork as well as ours.

(6) Image size limits for digital entries
: Please reduce your image to 640px on its longest side. Not sure how? It's easy! If you don't have image manipulation software, just go to ReducePhoto.com, then (1) browse for your image; (2) choose Custom Width 640px; (3) use Best Image Quality; (4) click reduce, sit back and think about how you can spread the word while your image uploads, then just follow ReducePhoto's simple instructions on how to download your image.

Be sure to keep the original high-resolution file. All potential winners will be required to deliver us their original high resolution image prior to receiving any award (we'll email you if we need the originals).

Sponsor:

SAVE THE FROGS!

Sponsor's Goals:

SAVE THE FROGS! is an international team of scientists, educators, policymakers and naturalists dedicated to protecting the world’s amphibian species: the frogs, toads, newts, salamanders, and caecilians.

SAVE THE FROGS! is America's first and only public charity dedicated exclusively to amphibian conservation. Our mission is to protect amphibian populations and to promote a society that respects and appreciates nature and wildlife. Our vision is a world in which not a single amphibian species is threatened with extinction. With your advice, your involvement and your financial support, we are 100% positive we can SAVE THE FROGS!

Legal Status
SAVE THE FROGS! is a 501(c)(3) public charity and our IRS determination letter is available upon request.

SAVE THE FROGS! was founded and incorporated in the Commonwealth of Virginia in May 2008.

Deadline:

2010-09-29

P R I Z E S

Total # of Prizes:

Low Prize:

Top Prize:

$100

R E Q U I R E M E N T S

Applies To:

For Residents of:

None given

Grades:

K,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,College,Adult

Other Requirements:

If you have any questions not answered here, or suggestions, please send a note to essay@savethefrogs.com

Why frogs are important
"And what is there to life if a man cannot hear the lonely cry of a whippoorwill or the arguments of the frogs around a pond at night?"
Chief Seattle - 1854

Frogs are the most threatened group of animals on Earth. Nearly one-third of the world’s 6,618 amphibian species are threatened with extinction, and up to 200 species have already completely disappeared in recent decades. Unless we act quickly, frog species will continue to disappear, resulting in irreversible consequences to Earth’s ecosystems and to humans.

Frogs are an integral part of the food web
Tadpoles keep waterways clean by feeding on algae. Adult frogs eat large quantities of insects, including disease vectors that can transmit fatal illnesses to humans (i.e. mosquitoes/malaria). Frogs also serve as an important food source to a diverse array of predators, including dragonflies, fish, snakes, birds and even monkeys. Thus, the disappearance of frog populations disturbs an intricate food web, and results in negative impacts that cascade through the ecosystem.

Frogs are bioindicators
Most frogs require suitable habitat in both the terrestrial and aquatic environments, and have permeable skin that can easily absorb toxic chemicals. These traits make frogs especially susceptible to environmental disturbances, and thus frogs are considered accurate indicators of environmental stress: the health of frogs is thought to be indicative of the health of the biosphere as a whole. Frogs have survived in more or less their current form for 250 million years, having survived countless ice ages, asteroid crashes, and other environmental disturbances, yet now one-third of amphibian species are on the verge of extinction. This should serve as an alarm call to humans that something is drastically wrong in the environment.

Humans use frogs in medicinal research
Frogs produce a wide array of skin secretions, many of which have significant potential to improve human health through their use as pharmaceuticals. Approximately 10% of Nobel Prizes in Physiology and Medicine have resulted from investigations that used frogs. When a frog species disappears, so does any promise it holds for improving human medicine.

The above image is courtesy of the Panama Amphibian Rescue and
Conservation Project.

Frogs are cool!
Frogs provide a source of enjoyment and cultural fascination to humans and it would be morally irresponsible to allow them to continue on their current extinction trajectory. Check out our Cool Frog Facts page.

Summary
Frogs are cool and we need them! They need our help too, so let’s SAVE THE FROGS!

"You must have certain noble areas of the world left in as close-to-primal condition as possible. You must have quietness and a certain amount of solitude. You must be able to touch the living rock, drink the pure waters, scan the great vistas, sleep under the stars and awaken to the cool dawn wind. Such experiences are the heritage of all people".
Ansel Adams, 1961

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