Sophia's choice

Sophia Maltese’s artistic portrayal of nature’s majesty has made her a nationwide star.

A Grade 7 student at Bishop E.Q. Jennings School, the 12-year old on Friday was officially notified of her win in the TD Friends of the Environment Foundation’s online environmental art contest, recognizing her painting of a majestic tree at the end of its life cycle.

She was one of 5,000 entrants in the Canada-wide contest, which narrowed the entries to 10 finalists and put it to a public vote. Sophia’s painting earned the most number of the 14,500 votes cast in the contest to take the top prize.

For her efforts Sophia won $7,500 for her school to put toward an environmental project, which the youngster said she’d like to see used to build an outdoor classroom for all the school’s students to use.

“It would be nice for the students to be able to do their work outside by the forest near our school,” she said.

Principal Margaret Hall said Sophia’s dream is set to see fruition – once the snow stops falling next spring.

“It is a very expensive vision, but now it can become a reality,” Hall said. “We’ll be able to have the kids out of the box, out of the classroom and engaged in a different way in their education, so that’s a very exciting venture for us.”

Sophia was surprised she made the top 10, let alone capturing the entire contest.

“It’s very exciting,” she said, her parents, younger sister and several other relatives on hand for the official announcement, held at TD’s Memorial Avenue branch.

“I’m very happy to win this for my school and for my family. I’d like to thank everyone who went out of the way to vote for me.”
Her mother, Deanna Maltese, said words can’t express how proud she is of her daughter’s accomplishments.

“I’m really excited because nature and being passionate about being outdoors has always been part of her spirit since the day she was born and I could just see this coming for her,” Deanna said.

“Anything that she sets her mind to, she’s very passionate about and she puts 100 per cent into it, so this is really her.”

TD’s Yvonne Faid, who oversees the environmental foundation’s local efforts said it’s hard to believe someone from the city won the contest.

“It went to the vote, and she won, and we’re very, very proud here in Thunder Bay because she’s one of our own, and that is a very, very substantial accomplishment.”

In addition to the money for the school, Sophia takes home a digital camera for herself, litter-less lunch bags for her entire classroom and her artwork will be featured on TD’s environmental shopping bags being released in the spring.