• Article Photo. Coralee Bodeker received her award for the Duck Stamp contest last Sunday.
    Coralee Bodeker received her award for the Duck Stamp contest last Sunday.
  • Article Photo. Coralee Bodeker of Vinton won the Duck Stamp contest for grades 7-9.
    Coralee Bodeker of Vinton won the Duck Stamp contest for grades 7-9.
  • Article Photo. Coralee's Common Mergaser, left. and this year's Best of Show winner.
    Coralee's Common Mergaser, left. and this year's Best of Show winner.
  • Article Photo. This year's honorees.
    This year's honorees.

Coralee Bodeker, a 7th grade home-schooled student who is part of the V-S/Benton home school program, placed 1st in the 2015 Iowa Junior Duck Stamp Competition in Grade Group 7-9. She drew a female Common Merganser with a chick using colored pencils. This year's Iowa contest received over 530 entries, more than twice the 240 the contest received last year. 

Coralee received her award Sunday, April 26th at the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge Prairie Learning Center near Prairie City. 

Coralee loves to draw as well as bird watch. Her original artwork can also be found in the Benton County Conservation Board's quarterly newsletter under the column "A Prairie Girl's Notebook," which she both writes and illustrates. She is a volunteer at the Benton and Buchanan County Conservation nature centers, a bluebird box monitor for Buchanan County Conservation, a volunteer in the gardens at the Richardson-Jakway Historic Site near Aurora, a member of Iowa Young Birders, and a Volunteer Wildlife Monitor for the DNR.

Doreen Van Ryswyk, Iowa Junior Duck Stamp Coordinator, encourages any Iowa student grades K-12 to enter next year's contest as every entry she receives earns her program $1 for outreach and education as it relates to the duck stamp and conservation.  Interested students can go to the Junior Duck Stamp Program's Iowa website for more information: http://www.fws.gov/juniorduck/States/Iowa.htm