Local Kid Could Win Big in Google Contest -- With Your Help

Have you ever puzzled over a Doodle?

You know, a Doodle, those customized illustrations of Google’s logo that it uses on holidays both common and obscure. Sometimes it’s easy to know what they stand for, sometimes it’s more of a challenge.

But if one talented young second grader is successful in his mission, the Doodle you’ll be looking at on May 20 will have a local flair. Matteo Lopez, a second grade student at Monte Verde Elementary School, is one of 40 regional finalists in this year’s Doodle 4 Google contest.

Lopez’s mother, Maria Jauregui-Lopez, heard of the contest in January and encouraged Matteo to enter. He’s been artistic since the age of three, and after several weeks of work he created an outer space scene that recasts Google’s letters as an alien, an astronaut and a meteor.

A week and a half ago, the family found out that Matteo was a finalist. His entry was picked by a panel Google employees and celebrity judges that included Whoopi Goldberg and Michael Phelps out of 107,000 total entries as the best submission from a first through third grader in the states of California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii and Alaska.

He’s already won a trip to New York for the prize ceremony, but three national finalists will win $5,000 college scholarships, and the national winner will get a $15,000 college scholarship, a $25,000 technology grant for their school and the honor of having their Doodle on the Google homepage on May 20.

And that’s where you come in: the winner will be decided by popular vote. To vote for the Matteo’s Doodle, visit Matteo’s section of the Doodle 4 Google website and click “Vote for this doodle.” And let your friends know, too. But act fast: voting runs through May 13.