“The Simpsons” is giving one lucky contest winner the chance to make others yellow with envy by creating a character for the TV series. The new Springfield resident will appear in a 2010 episode featuring Chris Martin of Coldplay as guest star. The contest, part of the Fox show’s 20th-anniversary celebration, is for those 18 and older. It opened yesterday and runs until 11:59 p.m. EDT next Saturday.

Two Chesterfield County high school cheerleaders were the top two winners at the National Cheerleader of the Year Scholarship Competition held recently in Fayetteville, N.C. Quinn Moorer from James River High School was named National Cheerleader of the Year, and Ryan Hooghkirk from Cosby High School was first runner-up. Moorer earned a $3,000 scholarship to the college of her choice, and Hooghkirk received a $1,500 scholarship. The cheerleader of the year also makes several public appearances and has potential travel opportunities.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. Members of the public will use mobile devices and the Web to choose the winner of the first ArtPrize, which offers a top prize of $250,000. The annual event will be held Sept. 23 through Oct. 10 at perhaps hundreds of venues in downtown Grand Rapids. Organizers hope to receive thousands of entries vying for more than $400,000 in total prize money.

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.