Girl's winning Google Doodle shows her dad home from war
A 12th-grader has been named the 2013 U.S. Doodle 4 Google national winner for her drawing of her father returning home from Iraq.
A picture depicting a girl's reunion with her father returning from war has won the top award in a Google Doodle contest.
On display Thursday at Google's home page, "Coming Home" is a simple but powerful piece of art that portrays a young girl holding an American flag and running to reunite with her father. The returning soldier appears. They exchange a glance. And finally they fall into a deep embrace as they treasure their moment together again.
Created by 12th grader Sabrina Brady of Sparta, Wisc., "Coming Home" faced great competition in being crowned the 2013 U.S. Doodle 4 Google national winner. Google received more than 130,000 submissions for the contest, which garnered millions of votes. But in the end, Sabrina's drawing clearly moved the voters.
"Sabrina's doodle stood out in the crowd," Google said in its official blog on Wednesday. "It tells the story of her reunion with her father as he returned from an 18 month deployment in Iraq. Her creative use of the Google letters to illustrate this heartfelt moment clearly resonated with voters across the country and all of us at Google."
Beyond seeing her doodle appear on Google's home page, Sabrina will receive a $30,000 college scholarship, a Chromebook computer, and a $50,000 technology grant for her school. She's headed to the Minneapolis College of Art and Design this fall, where Google says "she will continue her artistic pursuits."
Google also singled out four national finalists, each of whom will be given a $5,000 college scholarship. All 50 state winners will be treated to an exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan where their artwork will be on display until July 14.