Google Memorializes Uvalde Shooting Victim by Displaying Her Drawing on Doodle Page

Google hosts a yearly Doodle competition where children from across the country submit their artwork to potentially be featured on the Google Doodle page.

This year, Uvalde victim Alithia Haven Ramirez was highlighted and featured on the page with a memorial created by Google, according to ABC News.

Alithia, who dreamed of one day studying art in Paris, was killed in the Robb Elementary shooting alongside 18 other students and two teachers by shooter Salvador Ramos. Her grandmother, Rosa Maria Ramirez, said, “Oh my God, she was a very talented little girl. She loved to draw. She was real sweet. Never getting into trouble.”

For her submission, Alithia drew herself sitting on the couch with her dog, knitting with two balls of yarn. The contest requires the word “Google” to appear somewhere in the artwork, which Alithia did by depicting a row of artworks behind her that spell the word out.

Google launched the contest with a statement on what the artwork should mean to each student submitting a piece.

They wrote, “We’re asking students to share how they nurture themselves in tough times. What do they do to feel better when they’re feeling down? How do they approach taking a break? What activities make them feel calm or give them energy? What or who brings them joy?”

This year’s contest was judged by Selena Gomez; mental health activist Elyse Fox and Juliana Urtubey, who won a teaching award in 2021.

The contest was open to all students in the 50 states and four territories that comprise the United States. The winners of the contest, which celebrates its 14th anniversary this year, will be announced on July 28.

Alithia included a statement with her submission, in response to the contest’s theme of “I care for myself by…,” and wrote: “I want the world to see my art and show the world what I can do, I want people to be happy when they see my passion in art.”

In a visit to Uvalde, President Biden promised Alithia’s father Ryan that he’d be hanging his daughter’s artwork in his office.

Ryan described his daughter as an avid drawer, saying she “always had a crayon in hand, just going to town,” according to ABC 6.

Last month Uvalde native and actor Matthew McConaughey traveled to his hometown in early June before appearing at a White House press briefing on June 7, where he displayed some of Alithia‘s artwork and spoke about her parents, Ryan and Jessica.

“Ryan and Jessica were eager to share Alithia’s art with us and said that if we can share it, that somehow maybe that would make Alithia smile in heaven,” he said. “They told us that showing someone else Alithia’s art would in some way keep her alive.”

McConaughey displayed another one of Alithia‘s drawings at the White House, this one depicting the artist drawing a picture while a friend of hers draws the same picture in heaven.

The actor described a conversation he had with Alithia’s mother, where she told him that, even though she and Alithia had never discussed heaven before, it was almost as if the 10-year-old artist grasped the concept all on her own.