Wyoming only has 500,000 people?

CHEYENNE -- Out of more than half a million people in Wyoming, apparently nobody here can decorate an Easter egg.

A press release this week from the White House Office of the First Lady states that Philip M. LeDonne of Elmhurst, Ill., decorated the "Wyoming" egg unveiled this week at the annual State Egg Display at the White House Visitor Center.

So how did LeDonne, an Illinois college student, come to decorate the official Wyoming egg?

Christine Bushway of Alexandria, Va., director of state programs for the egg board, said Tuesday the board first contacts egg promotional groups to try to get recommendations for an egg artist to represent each state. However, she said no such promotional group exists in Wyoming.

Bushway said the next step was to contact the International Egg Art Guild to try to get names of artists willing to prepare eggs from each state for display at the White House.

"They didn't have anyone to recommend for Wyoming," Bushway said of the guild. "We go through quite a procedure to try to find someone.

"We turned to a college student to do that particular egg," Bushway said of Wyoming. "It was a process, we asked for recommendations from various people in our office. And that was the name that was chosen."

Above is the Texas Easter Egg which is fairly representative of the submissions from other states. This is Wyoming's