Enter DSWF Global Canvas 2022

Global Canvas is an annual children’s art competition run by David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation (DSWF). It’s a fantastic way to encourage creativity and display thought and concern for our planet’s environment and the incredible wildlife that inhabits it. We’re thrilled to announce entries are now open for the DSWF Global Canvas 2022 competition, for which the theme is “Forests of Land and Sea”.

DSWF Global Canvas 2022 is free to enter and open to children aged 16 and under — either as a group or an individual. Entries for group and individual categories will be judged separately and in the following age groups: age 4-7 years, age 8-11 years, and age 12-16 years. A group entry can be any size from 2 children up to an entire school!

Any art technique is welcome. Entrants can create an artwork of any size that they like, as long as their entry is based on the theme and the work is original. DSWF always likes to see recycled materials used wherever possible. Please note that you mustn’t send us your actual artwork, however. You need to send us a photograph and video of it in addition to completing the relevant group or individual entry form. All entries must be received digitally by 11 June 2022.

Entries will be judged on the quality of art, interpretation of the theme, creativity, and for group entries — level of joint work. The decision of the judges will be final. Competition winners will receive vouchers (代金券) for art supplies, digital animal adoptions and certificates.

Not so long ago, most people didn’t know who Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce was going to become. She was just an average high school athlete. There was every indication that she was just another Jamaican teenager without much of a future. However, one person wants to change this. Stephen Francis observed then eighteen-year-old Shelly-Ann at a track meet and was convinced that he had seen the beginning of true greatness. Her times were not exactly impressive, but even so, he sensed there was something trying to get out, something the other coaches had overlooked when they had assessed her and found her lacking. He decided to offer Shelly-Ann a place in his very strict training sessions. Their cooperation quickly produced results, and a few years later at Jamaica’s Olympic trails in early 2008, Shelly Ann, who at that time only ranked number 70 in the world, beat Jamaica’s unchallenged queen of the sprint (短跑).

“Where did she come from?” asked an astonished sprinting world, before concluding that she must be one of those one-hit wonders that spring up from time to time, only to disappear again without signs. But Shelly Ann was to prove that she was anything but a one-hit wonder. At the Beijing Olympic she swept away any doubts about her ability to perform consistently by becoming the first Jamaican woman ever to win the 100 meters Olympic gold. She did it again one year on at the World Championship in Berlin, becoming world champion with a time of 10.73 — the fourth fastest ever.

Shelly-Ann is a little woman with a big smile. She has a mental toughness that did not come about by chance. Her journey to becoming the fastest woman on earth has been anything but smooth and effortless. She grew up in one of Jamaica’s toughest inner-city communities known as Waterhouse, where she lived in a one-room apartment, sleeping four in a bed with her mother and two brothers. Waterhouse, one of the poorest communities in Jamaica, is a really violent and overpopulated place. Several of Shelly-Ann's friends and family were caught up in the killings; one of her cousins was shot dead only a few streets away from where she lived. Sometimes her family didn’t have enough to eat. She ran at the school championships barefooted because she couldn’t afford shoes. Her mother Maxime, one of a family of fourteen, had been an athlete herself as a young girl but, like so many other girls in Waterhouse, had to stop after she had her first baby. Maxime’s early entry into the adult world with its responsibilities gave her the determination to ensure that her kids would not end up in Waterhouse's roundabout(循环) of poverty. One of the first things Maxime used to do with Shelly-Ann was taking her to the track, and she was ready to sacrifice everything.

It didn't take long for Shelly-Ann to realize that sports could be her way out of Waterhouse. On a summer evening in Beijing in 2008, all those long, hard hours of work and commitment finally bore fruit. The barefoot kid who just a few years previously had been living in poverty, surrounded by criminals and violence, had written a new chapter in the history of sports.

But Shelly-Ann’s victory was far greater than that. The night she won Olympic gold in Beijing, the routine murders in Waterhouse and the drug wars in the neighbouring streets stopped. The dark cloud above one of the world’s toughest criminal neighbourhoods simply disappeared for a few days. “I have so much fire burning for my country,” Shelly said. She plans to start a foundation for homeless children and wants to build a community centre in Waterhouse. She hopes to inspire the Jamaicans to lay down their weapons. She intends to fight to make it a woman’s as well as a man’s world.

As Muhammad Ali puts it, “Champions aren't made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them. A desire, a dream, a vision.” One of the things Shelly-Ann can be proud of is her understanding of this truth.

During Rick’s birth in 1962, his brain was damaged for lack of oxygen. The doctors told Dick Hoyt that there was no hope of his son being anything more than a “vegetable”. Yet Dick and his wife were determined to raise him at home.

At age 13, Rick told his father he wanted to participate in a five-mile benefit run for the disabled. Dick was not a runner, but he agreed to push Rick through the race course in his wheelchair. That was when a surprising thing happened. During the run, Rick felt as though he wasn’t disabled anymore—he was simply one of the runners. This experience deeply affected Dick, and he committed himself to running an increasing number of events with his son so that Rick could have this feeling as often as possible.

At first, other competitors often treated them as outsiders and even avoided them. But gradually, what began as a way for Rick Hoyt to experience inclusion and equality served its purpose. Running together became a way to send out a message that, as Rick said, everybody should be included in everyday life. The pair’s first Boston Marathon in 1981 finished in the top quarter of the field, and shortly thereafter, attitudes began to change. Many athletes would come up to them before the race to wish them luck.

The 2013 Boston Marathon was the 31st time the Hoyts had run the race, and it was also their last race. Dick has run thousands of miles to be with and support his son. Their athletic pursuits have enriched Rick’s life and had practical benefits for Dick’s life as well: After a heart attack, Dick’s doctor told him he might have died 15 years earlier if he weren’t in such good shape.