Congratulations to Ben Behrends for Winning the RAGBRAI Kid’s Art Contest

We would like to congratulate all the young artists throughout Iowa who drew, painted or scultured RAGBRAI masterpieces leading up to RAGBRAI.  We hope you saw some of the artwork in the overnight town communities that were on display.

This year’s winner of the RAGBRAI Kid’s Art Contest is 8 year old Ben Behrends.  Ben drawing depicted the local theme in Cedar Falls of “It’s All Downhill from Here!”  The young artist from Cedar Falls will receive a prize of $350 from RAGBRAI for being selected as the statewide winner.  When asked what he thought about winning the contest, Ben said, “Thanks guys for voting for me! Everyone else in the contest – good job on your artwork!” He also said, “It’s crazy that I was the youngest one & I won. I want to use my money for a LEGO set, my church, and college.”Congratulations Ben!

The children of the RAGBRAI XLIII overnight communities were invited to participate in the annual RAGBRAI Kids’ Art Contest. The contest called for students in kindergarten through fifth grade to incorporate their town’s RAGBRAI theme into colorful artwork. The artwork could be drawings, paintings or sculptures. The children’s artwork will be displayed throughout the communities to promote RAGBRAI spirit and help decorate the towns. Towns held community-wide contests and selected one entry to the state-wide contest. The winning artist will receive a grand prize of $350 from RAGBRAI.

Congratulations to these town winners:

Sioux City:
Jashua Grima (10 years old)

Storm Lake:
Emma Jean Synder (11 years old)

Fort Dodge:
Brittany Lynn McCollum (10 years old)

Eldora:
Diep Nguyen & Anna Hantzeas (9 years old)

Cedar Falls:
Ben Behrends (8 years old)

Hiawatha:
Kaliyah Sain (10 years old)

Coralville:
Ella Woods (11 years old)

Davenport:
Robert Sieren (10 years old)