One Kingwood resident travelled across the U.S. to show off her gift wrapping skills in the 13th Annual Scotch Brand Most Gifted Wrapper Contest. On December 4, 2009 Judy Porter travelled to the Rockefeller Center in New York for three days to compete against three other professional gift wrappers and four amateur gift wrappers, for a chance to be named America's Most Gifted Wrapper.

Porter has been perfecting her wrapping skills for years, starting when she was a little girl. Her artistic ability came in handy as her family didn't have money to pay for gift wrapping and other family members didn't enjoy wrapping. In time she became the family gift wrapper and her career took off. She eventually became a gift wrapper at Neiman Marcus, where she still works. When she saw the contest, hosted and sponsored by Scotch Brand tape, she went online and entered immediately.

Porter, along with the other contestants, had to submit a brief essay describing their talent and experience in the art of gift wrapping and each was chosen as a participant based on these. Contestants were judged on the appearance of the wrapped gifts, the technique used to wrap the gifts, and the speed with which they were wrapped. In three rounds they had to wrap a toy helicopter and a boxed jigsaw puzzle, a bicycle, and finally a seven-foot tall sailboat, each of which had to be wrapped in seven minutes or less.

The final winner was Ann Erickson from Park City, UT who won the $10,000 cash prize. While Porter only won a smaller prize, she was excited to be a finalist in the competition, "Every second counts when you are in this competition; it is very competitive," she said. "As far as I am concerned, I have already won the competition and am very happy that I was selected to be a part of the competition."

Source: www.marketwire.com and www.hcnonline.com/kingwood_observer