Contest for children seeks greeting-card designs

The U.S. Fund for UNICEF announced today the call for entries for its annual Pier 1 greeting card contest, in which a child's winning design is turned into an official UNICEF greeting card, sold exclusively at Pier 1 Imports stores across the country during the 2009 holiday season. One hundred percent of the proceeds, as well as all UNICEF cards sold at Pier 1, go to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF to help in its mission to decrease the number of preventable childhood deaths from 25,000 each day to zero.

The contest, open to children ages 14 and under, runs through March 6, with the winner announced in April. This year's theme is "Joy to the World." In addition to having the design turned into a greeting card, the winner will receive a grand prize $5,000 scholarship, along with $500 worth of art supplies for their school.

New this year is a "People's Choice Award," in which visitors to the Pier 1 Web site (http://www.pier1.com) can vote on their favorite design from April 1-15. The "People's Choice" winner will receive $500 worth of art supplies.

Entry forms are available in Pier 1 Imports stores while supplies last, online at http://www.pier1.com and http://www.unicefusa.org, or by calling Pier 1's Customer Relations Department at (800) 245-4595. Entries must be hand-drawn and received by Pier 1 Imports' corporate headquarters by March 6. The children's artwork will be judged on artistic quality and creative interpretation of the theme "Joy to the World."