Merrill Middle School seventh-grader Lee Stalcup of Denver created the winning design for Sushi Redi’s 2002 delivery van that brings fresh sushi every day to Front Range grocers.

Lee’s van design was selected from 538 entries during Sushi Redi’s “The Art of Sushi” contest at the Cherry Creek Arts Festival last summer.

To celebrate, Lee and his classmates at Merrill Middle School will enjoy a Japanese cultural day on Friday, Oct. 18 when everyone will have a chance to try sushi, wrestle sumo-style, write in Japanese and fold origami art paper. Lee’s artwork – applied to the van – will also be unveiled.

The event begins at 1:00 p.m.

Lee says he entered the contest because he likes sushi. He eats sushi “whenever I ask my mom, and that’s probably at least once a week. If it were at my school I’d eat it all the time.”

His sushi van artwork took two hours to design, and was inspired by a growing interest in the Japanese culture.

“Everybody else was drawing fish under the ocean, and I started thinking Japanese,” said Lee. “I drew the Zen things because I’ve been reading about Zen a lot. There’s the red Japanese sun, and next to the driver’s door there’s a fish thinking. And there’s a little design on the bottom of little sushis.”

The event at Merrill Middle School will include a cultural presentation in the lunchroom, including an appearance by principal Ann Greenfield in a sumo suit.