Stamp Design Competition Winners

To celebrate 2018 being the “Year of the Reef”, we launched a Year of the Reef Stamp Design Competition in March. The competition was open to children aged 4-17. The challenge was to design an official postage stamp for the British Indian Ocean Territory on the theme of “Why are coral reefs and oceans important?”.

There was an incredible response to the competition with entries coming in from around the world. The panel of judges met at the end of May for the difficult task of deciding which entries should win. The level of competition was high, with some very impressive and well thought-through designs. The themes that were covered included how healthy reefs should look, damage caused by over fishing, and plastic pollution. Because of the number and quality of entries, the judges were asked to select not only an overall winner for each age category, but also “specially commended” entries. All the successful designs are shown below.

We would like to thank everyone who took part in the competition. It is fantastic that so many young people are passionate about protecting the world’s reefs and oceans. Thank you all very much for getting involved and we hope you will continue to champion this message and raise awareness of our oceans. Please have a look at the International Year of the Reef website for ideas about how to get involved in conservation work: https://www.iyor2018.org/

Here are the winners and their entries, which will shortly be made into stamps, congratulations!

Winners

4 – 6 age group

Kyle Irvine, age 6, from Aberdeenshire

7 – 9 age group

Megan Lee Yit May, age 9, from Brunei Darussalam

10 – 13 age group

Laura Gilbert, age 12, from Norfolk

14 – 17 age group

Ailis Law, age 14, from Greater Manchester

Specially Commended

A special commendation goes to the following entries:

4 – 6 age group

Emilia Saville, age 6, from Greater London

Samuel Townsley, age 5, from West Sussex

7 – 9 age group

Lunella Spalding, age 9, from Italy

Mya Noi, age 9, from Greater Manchester

Ruby Rowlands, age 7, from Greater Manchester

10 – 13 age group

Iwan Phillips, age 10, from Pembrokeshire

Quinn Quinn Lau Jun, age 11, from Brunei Darussalam

14 – 17 age group

Maisie Alger, age 16, from Norfolk

Bella Churchward, age 14, from Cheshire