By Samantha Pak

spak@redmond-reporter.com

One of Felicity Ng’s favorite hobbies is drawing.

From plants and people, to fruit and random things such as plates of food, the 10-year-old Redmond resident is almost never without a pencil and paper.

“Felicity draws all the time…just nonstop,” said her father Samson Ng. “She does some really amazing stuff.”

He is not the only one who thinks so as Felicity’s love for drawing has granted the fourth-grader from John James Audubon Elementary School in Redmond the opportunity to visit the nation’s capital for the 183rd annual White House Easter Egg Roll on March 28.

That opportunity came when she entered — and won — the event’s design contest.

According to the White House website, elementary and middle school students were invited to submit original artwork related to this year’s theme. The theme was “Let’s Celebrate!” to honor the final Easter Egg Roll of the Obama administration and celebrate the initiatives of first lady Michelle Obama.

Felicity entered the contest after her mother came across the contest online. Ng said because their daughter liked to draw, they thought it would be something she would be interested in doing.

Ng said they learned about the contest shortly before the deadline, so Felicity did not have too much time to work on her drawing. She ended up completing it in about two hours and they submitted it on Feb. 21, one day before the deadline.

After that, things moved quickly.

Someone from the White House contacted Audubon on Feb. 24 to let them know Felicity was a finalist in the contest. The next day, Ng said the White House representatives contacted his wife over the phone to let them know that the first lady would be selecting the winner soon and they needed a short biography for Felicity in case she was selected.

On March 1, Ng said they received an email from the White House letting them know that Felicity was one of two winners selected. Students from 19 states and two foreign countries submitted their work for the contest.

The White House website states that the winning designs were used as part of the Easter Egg Roll’s program and souvenir poster. Felicity’s design was featured on the front of the event’s program cover. The other winner’s design was featured on posters that were handed out as a prize to children who won the Easter Egg Roll and Egg Hunt.

When asked how she felt about having her design chosen for the program, Felicity — who appears to have inherited her artistic ability from her parents as dad has a background in architecture and mom is a freelance graphic designer — said she was “kind of happy” about the news.

And she is not the only one.

“I’m very proud of my daughter,” Ng said.

Felicity’s design features the White House, a lawn full of Fabergé eggs (her mother had shown her photos) kids playing and a white bunny. This is all set against an egg-shaped American flag. Felicity said she chose to include these elements because they would be the things they would be seeing at the event.

The entire Ng family (dad, mom, Felicity and her three younger siblings) traveled to Washington D.C. Ng said they received all-day, in-and-out privileges for the Easter Egg Roll event, adding that other attendees — totaling to about 35,000 — were allowed in for only two-hour increments.

“We got to be there all day,” he said, adding that they took advantage of the in-and-out privileges to go out and eat lunch and return to the festivities.

According to the White House website, there were various activities people could participate in such as live music, sports courts, cooking stations, storytelling and Easter egg rolling. This year’s Easter Egg Roll also incuded the first-ever White House Fun Run, in which the first lady joined 250 children on a short run to promote active and healthy lifestyles for kids.

Ng said their family was also part of a photo lineup with the Obamas and got to meet the first couple.

“That was a surprise,” he said.

While Ng was able to take in the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and was honored to be part of it, he said it would have been nice if their kids — who range from 2-10 years old — were a little older to understand the significance.

Felicity also realizes this as when asked what she thought about meeting the president and first lady, she said, “I can’t appreciate it.”