UNC Hospital School students paint cows for 'Mini Moos in Schools Contest'

Paintbrushes in hand, 20 students at the UNC Hospital School took a much needed break from their normal routines earlier this month.

But rather than going to art class, the students participated in CowParadeNC’s “Mini Moos in Schools Contest” by painting two 2-foot by 4-foot fiberglass cows.

Sherron Leplin, principal of the year-round educational program that allows children who are patients at UNC hospitals to continue their studies during extended hospital stays, said the enthusiasm and positive response among the students was incredible.

“One little boy in the elementary school was just so excited to paint,” Leplin said. “He was running around saying he wanted to paint all day.”

The contest, which ran from Jan. 22 to 29, works to raise money for the N.C. Children’s Hospital, and the painted cows that received the most votes on CowParadeNC’s Facebook page will be sold at a Saturday auction in Raleigh.

Though their entries did not win the competition, UNC Hospital School teacher Carolyn Inselmann said the students loved being able to paint the cows because it provided a distraction from the routine of being in the hospital.

“Now that the cows are completed, we get kids coming to us all the time who want to paint more because they had that much fun with it,” Inselmann said.

Inselmann helped coordinate the event and choose the two themes for the school’s “mini moos.”

For the first theme, “Cows in Children’s Literature,” the high school and middle school students painted covers of books about cows onto the figurines.

Featured covers included “The Story of Ferdinand,” “Moo Moo, Brown Cow” and “Click Clack Moo: Cows that Type.”

The second statue, which the students dubbed “Dottie,” was called the “Glamour Cow.”

The elementary school students designed Dottie and painted colorful circles onto the cow.

After the students completed their mini moo masterpieces, Lee Ann Gelinne, a technology specialist at the UNC Hospital School, took photos of the cows and submitted them to the CowParadeNC’s Facebook page for judging.

The UNC Hospital School competed against eight other schools in the Triangle area.

In the end, the Hospital School’s “Cows in Children’s Literature” cow finished with 89 votes, while Dottie finished with 140 votes.

Neither cow could muster up enough votes to get the school into the top five.

The Durham School of the Arts’ cow won the competition with 1,248 votes.

Gelinne said that while the UNC Hospital School’s cows did not qualify for the auction, CowParadeNC decided to use them as decoration during the auction.

“We were kind of disappointed that we didn’t win,” Gelinne said.

“But all of the other cows were so great. I was impressed.”

Contact the desk editor at arts@dailytarheel.com.