This year marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of prolific Russian fabulist, Ivan A. Krylov.  To commemorate his birthday and his over 200 fables, Congress of Russian Americans held a national Russian Children’s Art Competition.  With over 35 Russian schools from 14 states (and over 70 cities) competing, the competition brought in over 700 pieces of artwork from children in 4 categories:  4-6 years; 7-9 years; 10-13 years and 14-16 years.  After the first phase of the competition, which was held in each school, 1st, 2nd & 3rd place winners artwork was forwarded to CRA.  200 pieces of artwork were on display during the exhibit that took place on May 11, 2019 at the Social Hall of the Russian American Women’s League.   The jury was comprised of three local artists, who judged each artwork on various criteria.  According to them, it was incredibly difficult to pick out only 3 place winners in each category, and thus, they were compelled to add an Honorary Mention in each category.  Still, there were a lot of art that didn’t win, but did merit recognition.  It was evident that the children read and studied the fables that they chose and used a lot of creativity to capture the fable in their artwork.   Following the exhibit and competition, Russian American Women’s League, under the leadership of their President, Alexandra Sabelnik-Whooley invited all participants, children, parents, teachers to a bountiful buffet reception in honor of the feast of Easter and to congratulate the participants and winners of the competition.   The winners artwork was on exhibit, the next day at the 88th “Day of the Russian Child” and has been forwarded to Argentina for the international competition which will take place in Buenos Aires, during the regional conference of Russian compatriots of 25 countries of South, Central and North America, as well as Australia and New Zealand.