DINWIDDIE COUNTY, Va. — Eric Edwards doesn’t consider himself an artist. But others sure do.
Not once, but twice Edwards' artwork has received public praise.
Last year, his mother suggested he enter a 4-H-sponsored contest to design the official Dinwiddie County Fair t-shirt.
The challenge, at first, felt daunting.
"I was like, man, that’s going to be hard because I got to do a fair theme and not stuff I’m going to like," he said. "I can’t design my own shirt, I’ve got to do something that represents Dinwiddie and the fair."
So Eric went to work.
"It was a one-time-a-year thing, so put the Welcome Back Sign," he said about his design.
Edwards' design was chosen for the shirt.
"I didn’t think it was going to win, but then I was really happy that it did," he said.
When not drawing, the Dinwiddie High School student is a member of the school's tennis team, plays baseball, and recently became a junior volunteer at a Dinwiddie Fire Station.
But he still makes time for art.
His mother once again encouraged Eric and her two other children to enter a contest to design the county's new “I Voted' sticker handed out to voters at the polls.
Eric chose to focus his design on the military.
"They’re the reason we are allowed to vote and the reason we have all these freedoms and we’re able to walk around and do the things we like every day," he reasoned.
“He likes everything American flags," mother Tammy Edwards said about her son's red, white, and blue design. "He knows the military helps us, all the people who sign up, we have a couple of family members in the military.”
While Eric’s brother and sister were in the running for the top spot, at the end online voters chose Eric's design.
"Anyone who votes by mail or in person for the June 20 election and the November 7 general election, will have one of Eric’s stickers," Stephanie Wray, Dinwiddie General Registrar, said.
More than 20,000 stickers with Eric Edwards' design were expected to be handed out to Dinwiddie voters.
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