This past June, our nine judges for the contest, who were Ben Babelowski (an Ottawa-area artist), Tim Cole (the Canada Science and Technology Museum's Astronomy Educator), Ed Han (representing radio station The Bear), Dave James (a junior member of the Ottawa Centre), Ellissa Landsdell representing television station The New RO), Lee Macdonald (Secretary of the Ottawa Centre at the time), Elizabeth Milligan (Art Teacher, Elmwood School), Gary Boyle (OG Chairman of the Ottawa Centre), and Victoria Wagner (a junior member of the Ottawa Centre), had the difficult task of choosing 25 winners.

During judging, the 384 superb drawings were identified with only a title and a registration number; names of the children and their schools were not revealed. The contest had three age categories: kindergarten to grade 4, grades 5 to 8, and grades 9 to 12. Eight drawings were chosen from each category. One was to be chosen as the Grand Winner which would grace the calendar's cover as well. It was a nice surprise that the Grand Winner was from the school that allowed us to use their space for the judging event. It takes a lot of space to lay out 384 pieces of art! The judges all enjoyed themselves and the catering. Ben Babelowski saw much talent in the young artists. Ben has also created a 2001 calendar of his own art. The New RO's news covered Ellissa Landsdell as she was viewing the art and exclaiming how difficult a job it was to choose 25 winners out of 384 great drawings!

After the judging, the winners were notified (that was fun), and the next stage was the astronomical job of actually producing the calendar. Acquiring printing quotes, creating electronic scans of the artwork, and editing and graphic designing were mostly carried out by Centre Webmaster Yves Demers. Then the printing, individual numbering (it's a collectors' item, after all!) and laminating jobs were all completed before the launch date of October 29th, 2000. This was an exciting time. Even the printers were impressed with the calendar - not just of its overall quality but impressed with the whole idea. It's a great timepiece for the new Millennium. The last (and certainly not least) stage of the project was the calendar launch and prize ceremony. Winners, runners-up, families, friends, teachers and school principals filled the auditorium at the Canada Science and Technology Museum on the afternoon of Sunday, October 29th. News teams from the New RO and CJOH were also in attendance.

The Grand Winner, Titel Jurca, 15 years old and from St. Patrick's High School, received a 3½" telescope donated by Focus Scientific. All winners and runners-up received prizes due to the many generous people willing to donate for this event; for example: Display Laminating Ltd. donated ten Nightwatch books by Terence Dickinson, and laminated and mounted all the winning art; Doug George and Peter Ceravolo donated 25 comet videos and 60 comet CDs; Charm Diamond Centre donated a children's space-age digital watch; and more. Glen Campbell of the Canadian Space Agency and a magic act added to the celebrations of the day. Everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves. The best part for me was meeting the winners and runners-up and putting faces to all of the art that I came to know so well.

The effort the project demanded (which sometimes seemed all-consuming) was richly rewarded by seeing the positive benefits the calendar has had (and will continue to have) on everyone involved. I enjoyed the opportunity to speak to so many enthusiastic teachers and parents. I was told stories of kids who laboured over their artwork with dreams of being a winner, of shy kids who needed encouragement and won, and of parents who rushed to get calendars for aunts, uncles, grandparents, and so on. All schools where winners and runners-up attended announced their students' accomplishments in various newsletters. Some schools even emailed other schools congratulating them on their winners in the contest. It has been a positive experience all around!

Today, we are nearing the end of this project but we are also at the beginning of a new era with something to show for the kids of the new Millennium. I can imagine that many years into the future, someone will look at this calendar and remember the kids of 2001 and of the Ottawa Centre, and will know what an exciting time it was.

This project could not have happened without Yves Demers, who was the backbone of the whole affair, nor without the many volunteers who quietly gave their time and energy. Folks went out to the schools and collected the artwork (James Book, James Drinnan, Steven Montgomery, Rick Wagner, and Leslie Welsh), set up and took down the art for the judging process (Jack Gee, Linda Meier, Sandra Mialkowski, and Gerald & Colleen Noordhof), hung all 384 pieces of art and generally helped at the Museum during the prize ceremony (Kirsten Baumberg, Bryan Black, Tim Cole, Sandra Mialkowski, Chris Teron, Heather Teron, and Jenn Tigner). There are also people who contributed to the calendar itself, such as the job of scanning all the art (Chris Teron), designing the monthly Moon phase images (Tim Cole), the collecting of astronomical data (Gaston Lamontagne, Matt Meier, and Carmen Rush), and of editing the calendar (Gary Boyle, Tim Cole, and Brian McCullough). As well, J. Peter Williams deserves credit for his awesome fund-raising abilities. This was an outstanding team effort. Kudos to the ever-enthusiastic Ottawa Centre!

Lastly, I would like to give acknowledgement and thanks to Brian McCullough, now Past President of the Ottawa Centre, for his enthusiastic support and encouragement for enabling 2001 Children's Space Odyssey to fly.