She's never visited those particular shores of Flathead Lake, that wild patch of green tucked tight to the tiny town of Bigfork and shadowed by the soaring Swan Crest.
She's never seen the waterfront campsites, the hiking trails and boat ramps and fire pits still sticky with last night's s'mores.
Perkins has visited online, poring over pictures of the state park, reading about rocky shorelines and high cliffs and summertime wildflowers. She was especially taken by the part that said “a bear has been sighted in this area, so remember you are in bear country.”
Emily Perkins likes bears. At least, she likes to draw them, chubby and cute caricatures, these wayfaring bears of her imagination.
She's good at it, too. Good enough that the Columbia Falls almost-teen recently took first place in a statewide state parks' poster contest.
Her picture of Wayfarers - peaks and pines beneath a glowing sunrise, mama bear clutching a trout, cubs climbing for honey - was chosen tops from the more than 500 entries received by the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
“It's exciting,” Emily said. “I've never won an art contest before.”
To be fair, she's never entered an art contest before, either.
The idea came from her teacher, Mrs. Spencer, who has noticed Emily's skill with pen and pencil.
“I like drawing animals,” Emily said. “I like to look on the Internet for pictures of animals and mountains and then I draw them.”
The 19th annual Montana State Parks Poster Contest was a perfect fit.
“She's definitely very artistic,” said her mom, Jodee Perkins. “She has an older sister who's a good artist, too. Actually, they're all pretty good artists. I don't know where they get it.”
Wherever they got it, they got it good.
Emily likes colored pencils, and markers, and especially paint. But not crayons. She has an easel in her room, and pictures on her walls, and illustrations clutter her desk.
“It didn't surprise me at all how well the poster turned out,” Jodee said. “But there were 500 entries, so when she won first place, that was a real surprise. It was a real ‘wow.' ”
The “wow” won young Perkins a trip to the Capitol, where none other than Lt. Gov. John Bohlinger introduced her and her poster to the rest of the state.
Emily was, she admits, “kinda nervous,” but Bohlinger proved to be “very nice.”
Still, he's just a politician, and no way could he compete with the next part of the prize - a field trip with Emily's entire class, all aboard a fancy charter bus, to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Great Falls.
Then the 25 or so fifth-graders hit the Charles M. Russell Museum, the Giant Springs State Park and the First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park. They had a camp-out in a church basement, and then toured some more.
“It was just a perfect trip,” Jodee said. “All those kids will remember it forever.”
Still to come - a couple free nights in a yurt at Big Arm State Park, right across the lake from Wayfarers. “It's kind of like a tepee,” Emily explained of the yurt, “and it holds six people, and that's perfect, because we have six people in our family.”
Hers is a hunting, hiking, camping family, too, which makes the prize even more perfect.
And at some point, Emily said, “we're going to go to Wayfarers. We were going to go before, but it was too cold.”
This time, though, she'll go prepared, with a fully equipped backpack, courtesy of Montana's state park managers.
Her poster, meanwhile, has been framed and sent out on the road, making its way through FWP offices from Region 1 through Region 7, June through October.
Come fall, it will arrive home at the Perkins house, a reminder of one child's moment, when she was recognized for a job well done, and when her classmates have her three cheers on a bus ride home from Great Falls.
“It's kind of nice to have that happen sometime in your life,” Jodee said. “That's important.”
As is getting the family down to Wayfarers. After all, the lieutenant governor himself gave the order - “you make sure your parents take you,” he told Emily.
“We're going,” Jodee agreed. “We're definitely going sometime this summer.”
And maybe, just maybe, they'll spot that resident bear, somewhere in the woods along a state park's rocky shore, clutching tight to a fresh-caught rainbow trout, just like Emily pictured.
Reporter Michael Jamison can be reached at 1-800-366-7186 or at mjamison@missoulian.com
Posters on display
The winning poster entries will be displayed at FWP offices beginning in June, as scheduled:
FWP: 1420 E. Sixth Ave., Helena, June 2-13
Region 1: Lone Pine State Park, Kalispell, June 23-July 6
Region 2: 3201 Spurgin Road, Missoula, July 14-25
Region 3: 1400 South 19th, Bozeman, Aug. 4-15
Region 4: First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park, Ulm, Aug. 25-Sept. 5
Region 5: 2300 Lake Elmo Drive, Billings, Sept. 17-26
Region 6: Hwy. 2 West, Glasgow, Oct. 6-17
Region 7: Industrial Site West, Miles City, Oct. 27-Nov. 7
Posters from past years are showcased at FWP's Web site (www.fwp.mt.gov) on the State Parks Poster Contest link.
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