Lumberton Student's doodle may earn bundle, thanks to Google

[Sassygrl]

BY LAVINIA DECASTRO • COURIER-POST STAFF • MAY 9, 2008

LUMBERTON — Doodling along the margins of his school books has paid off for Spencer Norton.

The Ashbrook Elementary School third-grader is among 40 nationwide finalists in the Doodle 4 Google contest, in which students dressed up the search engine's logo.

"I'm very, very excited," said the 8-year-old. "Last night, I couldn't go to bed because I was so excited. I was up until 10 p.m."

Spencer's rock music-inspired design -- with an electric guitar replacing the L and the two speakers of a boombox replacing the Os in the word Google -- was picked from thousands of entries nationwide.

"It's very polished," said Allison Heller, Spencer's homeroom teacher. "Most third-graders' artwork doesn't look like this."

Contest entries had to be similar to the designs that adorn Google's homepage on special occasions and holidays. The contest's theme was "What if . . ."

Each of 18 children in Megan Mancini's gifted and talented class made up a design. The themes the students chose to illustrate included "What if it was summer all year round" and "What if there was no such thing as asthma," Mancini said. All 18 designs were then put on display so Ashbrook students could vote for their favorite. The six designs with the most votes were sent to Google, but only Spencer's was picked as a regional winner.

"I thought people were going to be jealous, but that didn't happen," Spencer said. "All my friends, they think that I'm going to win."

Spencer explained why he picked his theme, "What if the world rocked," to Google in a statement he sent along with the drawing.

"I told them that I can express myself with music," Spencer said. "If everyone could do that, everyone would be happy and the world would rock."

Spencer's design, along with the other 39 winners, will be displayed in a gallery on Google's Web site. From Monday through May 18, the public will get a chance to vote for the doodles they believe best capture the contest's theme.

On May 21, the students whose designs got the most votes will be revealed during a ceremony at the Googleplex in Mountain View, Calif.

Google's Webmaster Dennis Hwang will then pick the overall winner, who will receive a $10,000 college scholarship, a laptop and a T-shirt printed with their design.

The winner's school will receive $25,000 to improve or establish a computer lab.

"One of the dreams that the district has is to be able to put wireless laptops in the classrooms, so the kids don't have to go to the lab all the time," school district spokeswoman Betsy Kapulskey said.

Of all the prizes, the one that excites Spencer the most is having his design on Google's homepage for 24 hours.

"Millions of people will see my design," Spencer said. "That's crazy."

Reach Lavinia DeCastro at (856) 486-2652 or ldecastro@courierpostonline.com