Great idea! Here are some more suggestions:
1) You can also download a 30-day evaluation of paintshop pro from
http://www.jasc.com
That should get you through the contest, at least.
2) If you are running a windows based system, you can probably click and drag the photo from the forum right to your paint software program and drop it on the open window or the icon, and it should open up in there. Not sure about mac.
Otherwise right click on it and use "save-as"
Regards,
Matt