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11-year-old Kitty Thwaite from Lincolnshire has beaten more than 3,100 entries in the Envision Virgin Racing’s Formula E car team’s global art competition.
Kitty will have the climate change livery she designed recreated in full and put on display.
The sustainability focused art competition was held in partnership with National Geographic Kids and children’s illustrator Rob Biddulph (creator of the online series #DrawWithRob).
It challenged children to draw the all-electric race car through an instructional video, and then create their own nature-led custom car designs.
‘Our competition aimed to raise awareness of the effects of climate change to a younger audience, whilst providing a bit of fun and light relief to parents during the lockdown period.
‘Everyone at Envision Virgin Racing cares passionately about the environment, which is why we run numerous initiatives like this one under our Race Against Climate Change programme. As a father of two myself, I was very inspired by Kitty’s drawing and I’d like to extend my congratulations to her and my thanks to everyone involved.’
SYLVAIN FILIPPI
Managing director of Envision Virgin Racing’s Formula E team
The competition was judged by the team’s managing director Sylvain Filippi and managing director of Nat Geo Kids Peter Johnson.
Both were impressed with Kitty’s thought-provoking design, which features a variety of endangered animals set on a background of a ‘warming planet’, together with the message ‘land, air or sea, all animals are precious to me’.
‘It will be absolutely amazing to see my design for real’, commented Kitty who lives in Tetford in Lincolnshire, UK and attends the Edward Richardson Primary School. ‘We learn about recycling and emissions at school and I care about the environment a lot. I love drawing animals too; pandas are my favourite!’
To add to the excitement, Kitty was informed of the news on the BBC’s the One Show, where she appeared, with her mother Alison, live in front of an audience of around five million.
As part of her prize, Kitty will also receive tickets to a Formula E race next year and a video message from one of the team’s drivers. The top three entrants also received a subscription to children’s magazine National Geographic Kids.
‘Kitty has managed to – in a very small space – really get across the race we are in to stop a climate catastrophe and reminded us all that we should love our earth. Through this design Kitty has taken us on a journey across two different environments, both crucial to our existence and used flames to represent the rising temperatures which pose such great threats to the habits, people and wildlife that inhabit them. It’s a brilliant design and certainly worthy of winning. Well done Kitty!’
PETER JOHNSON
Managing director of Nat Geo Kids
Formula E – the world’s first fully-electric racing series – is next in action on 05 August in Berlin. The current season will resume with six races over nine days, following a five-month hiatus.
Sir Richard Branson adds first name to online sustainability pledge as new Formula E season kicks off.
Campaigner Anya Hart Dyke’s tips for teaching kids the global impacts of everyday decisions.
World’s biggest jute bag created by school kids to encourage people to go plastic free.
The English Climate Emergency Education Bill is the first education legislation written by pupils and students.
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