A HIGH SCHOOL Pupil has won the competition to name a steel sculpture created as a tribute to conservationist John Muir.
Emily Hotchkiss, a fifth year student at Dunbar Grammar School, in East Lothian won the competition to name the welded artwork.
Emily was awarded the prize after her name for the sculpture was chosen. “The DunBear” with one of the prizes being a picture of the bear signed by Andy Scott.
It was sculpted by Scottish Artist Andy Scott, the man behind the Kelpies and stands at 16ft (five metres) high and is located off the A1, near the Spott Roundabout in Dunbar, Est Lothian.
Following the recent unveiling of the Dunbar bear in November, a competition was held with students from Belhaven Hill School, Dunbar Primary and Grammar to name the bear.
The winner was chosen from nearly 3,000 entries.
The Dunbar bear sculpture, located off the A1 in close proximity to the Spott Roundabout at Dunbar, represents the legacy of one of East Lothian’s most famous sons, John Muir.
The sculpture forms part of the mixed-use Hallhill development, which started on site in 1999.
The final name was chosen by Andy Scott and stakeholders from Hallhill Development, who commissioned the piece.
Ken Ross, from Hallhill Developments, said: “I’m absolutely thrilled and would like to congratulate Emily Hotchkiss on her name for the bear. Every entry represented real enthusiasm for the project and, at the end of the day, community, history and talent is what this unveiling has been about.
“The DunBear celebrates the incredible legacy left behind by John Muir. His advocacy for national parks and the environment in general is a lesson to us all that we must do what we can to protect our precious environment.
“Going forward, we hope that many more children, young people and adults alike take an interest, visit and take an interest in ‘The DunBear’.”
John Muir, born in Dunbar in 1838, played a key role in the development of America’s national parks. He emigrated from Scotland in 1849 and is famous for petitioning the U.S. Congress for the National Park bill, establishing Yosemite National Park.
The bear is symbolic of John Muir’s travels through the far-off wilderness of America’s west, in the Rockies and his advocacy for National Parks.
