A Riverside Middle School pupil has raised the bar for Columbia County competitors in a worldwide art and poetry contest.

Seventh-grader Eric Stokes, 13, a member of the Columbia County 4-H Club, was named an international finalist in a contest sponsored by River of Words and the Library of Congress for his photograph, Raindrops on Spider Web.

Eric is Columbia County's first international finalist, said Paula Poss, a 4-H program assistant and volunteer coordinator. She said county 4-H members have submitted entries to the annual contest for about 10 years.

"When I first saw the photo, Raindrops on Spider Web, I knew it was special," Shirley Williamson, the Columbia County extension agent and 4-H coordinator, wrote in an e-mail.

River of Words is a California-based nonprofit organization that helps educators include observation-based nature exploration and the arts in their work with young people.

The contest, open to children ages 5 to 19, features a watershed theme each year to help young people explore the natural and cultural history of the place they live.

About 100 works of art and poems are selected as finalists.

Eric said he entered five photographs, including some shots from a family vacation last summer.

"We went on a trip out west to Yellowstone (National Park), and we took a lot of pictures," Eric said. "But the one that won was in our own backyard."

Eric, who will attend the awards ceremony at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., later this month, said photography is his favorite form of artistic expression.

"It's a little bit easier than drawing the stuff, and it also gives you more to work with, too," he said.