A ramen-loving fifth grader’s unique hand-drawn paintings will quickly grace hats, tote luggage and T-shirts round Greenpoint after the stylish nabe selected her design to signify a preferred grocery retailer.
Rosemary “Rosie” Burgess’ ramen-eating seal received the design contest this month by Jubilee Market because it looked for inspiration for its subsequent merch assortment and a technique to bolster neighborhood within the stylish nabe.
“I used to be shocked. Now I really feel good!” Rosie, 10, advised The Submit after taking residence the prize, including that the preliminary shock principally got here as a result of she “forgot about” the competition.
The competitors was solely open to fourth- and fifth-grade college students at PS 31, however invited your complete neighborhood to forged their votes for what Jubilee ought to plaster throughout its subsequent merch assortment.
Buyers slapped stickers on their favourite designs — which included a few of Brooklyn’s iconic water towers and the view of Manhattan’s skyline from Newtown Creek — on an enormous banner that hung within the grocery store all through February.
After the competitors was whittled right down to seven designs, Rosie took residence 25% of the 822 votes.
Rosie realized of the excellent news final week when she was known as right down to the principal’s workplace, however the 10-year-old swears she wasn’t nervous that she was known as in bother.
When requested about her inspiration for the paintings, Rosie mentioned: “As a result of I like seals! They’re cute.”
Though there’s no express point out or reference to Jubilee within the drawing, Roise drew from her favourite reminiscences within the grocery store when it got here to what meal the hat-wearing seal is munching on.
Spicy ramen is her favourite after-school snack to get on the store, which her mother known as the household’s “hangout.”
The blue hat was added just because seals dwell within the chilly, mentioned Rosie, who mentioned her hobbies are “portray” and “animals.”
The competition was dreamed up by Jubilee proprietor Younger Kim, who was “attempting to do one thing cool with the neighborhood.”
“What higher paintings than from elementary college students?” mentioned Kim, who opened his Greenpoint location again in 2023 and credited his neighbors with serving to him get it off the bottom.
“We bought great assist from the neighborhood, so I simply thought it was good to offer again.” continued Kim, who has made a reputation for himself for protecting grocery costs low within the costly and stylish nabe.
Kim first launched Jubilee merch in 2025, which was extremely standard — and rivaled the virality of Dealer Joe tote luggage on an area degree, prompting neighbors to beg for the brand new merch line within the new 12 months.
Somewhat than paying the $1,000 to a designer, Kim donated the identical whole to PS 31’s culinary arts program, the first-of-its-kind extracurricular that permits college students to chef up inside the faculty.
He additionally awarded Rosie a $500 reward card to the native guide store, Phrase — which she plans to make use of on “stickers.”
The opposite six finalists didn’t go residence empty-handed, nonetheless, and every was gifted a $100 voucher as effectively.
He’s additionally working with an area print store to supply the tote luggage, hats, T-shirts and extra, he added, noting that he expects the road to drop within the subsequent six weeks.
Kim’s generosity will proceed whilst the competition attracts to a halt — he doesn’t plan to maintain any revenue, as an alternative splitting it between a continued donation to PS 31 and a rotating checklist of native charities and meals pantries.
“My philosophy on all the pieces is to have a win-win scenario for everyone, the place we get to offer again to the varsity and different organizations,” Kim defined.
“We’re offering one thing the shoppers will like, and on the similar time, we’re additionally going to assist one other native enterprise by doing this.”
The toughest a part of the method for Kim was selecting the winner — a mission he punted off to highschool directors and his very personal prospects.
Dozens of fourth and fifth-grade college students submitted designs for his contest, however Kim left it to the varsity to pluck the highest seven contenders that the store proprietor blew up and posted on the wall of his grocery retailer.
Clients forged their vote by putting a star-shaped sticker subsequent to their favourite and by voting on social media, with the bulk closing in on Rosemary’s ramen-eating seal.
“I wouldn’t have been capable of choose to be sincere — they had been all so good! If I had been the one selecting, we might have most likely launched subsequent 12 months,” Kim mentioned.
