GONE FISHING with the State Fish Art Expo at the Go Fish Education Center

Last week I had the opportunity to attend Wildlife Forever's State Fish Art Expo at the Go Fish Education Center in Perry, Georgia. The expo is the final celebration of the K-12 State Fish Art Contest held each year. I was lucky enough to partner with State Fish Art, meet many of the award winning young artists and authors and see their beautiful work. I also got to lead two Hooked on Writing workshops and read from GONE FISHING with several of the young readers. Here is a link to an article I wrote about State Fish Art from January 2013.

Here are photos that highlight my time in Georgia:

This is the beautiful Go Fish Education Center. I love this giant bobber that lets everyone know they’re in the right place!

 Yes, that is Smokey Bear. Representatives from the U.S. Forest Service brought him to the event. Did you know that most forest fires are started by humans? It’s true.

Several winning student artists and authors stopped by to design their own bookmarks and make paper fishing boats with me. 

Look at these young authors hard at work at the Hooked on Writing workshop.

At the morning workshop, the grown ups jumped in and wrote with their kids!

Reading from GONE FISHING & channeling Sam's frustration: "This Princess Doll Does Not Belong!" Meet Karen and Doug; the Wildlife Forever team who orchestrate State Fish Art each year. (Notice the beautiful winning fish art work in the background!)

 One of the winning artists with his copy of GONE FiSHING and his younger sister. 

A winning artists with his copy of GONE FISHING. (He's a great reader; he read the part of Sam!)

This is a winning artist with her copy of GONE FISHING. (She's a great reader; she read the part of Lucy!)

These are the winning artists and authors at the awards ceremony which I wasn't able to attend. (Photo courtesy of State Fish Art.)

Thank you to the good people at Wildlife Forever and State Fish Art Expo, the Go Fish Education Center and Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the US Forest Service, and the other Expo sponsors, the winning artists and authors and the grown ups who brought their children to the Expo for making this a wonderful event! I was happy to be included in the fun! 

 It's not every day that a fish poet gets to have her photo taken with a life-size bobber. GO FISH and then read a good book!

07.19.2013