This year’s theme for the 2015 Conservation Poster Contest was “Local Heroes: Your Hardworking Pollinators.”
Clarke County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) did several presentations in both Clarke and Murray schools and the communities to advertise the contest and encourage participation.
There were 61students who participated this year. Each participant received a free cookie coupon from Subway and the top three winners in each of the five age divisions received a certificate, ribbon and a variety of coupons from McDonald’s, Casey’s and Arby’s.
The top winner in each division was sent on to compete at the regional level. There are nine regions that encompass the 99 counties of Iowa. Region 8 is comprised of 10 counties. Out of the five posters that Clarke County sent in, there were two that placed first in their age division. Regional winners were officially announced a few weeks ago and will receive a certificate and a check for $35.
Alexandria Rodriguez, who was a TK student last year at Clarke Community School District, won in the kindergarten through first grade division and Alyssa Joint, who was a third-grader at Murray Community School District won in the second through third grade division.
State winners were chosen from the regional finalists and received a certificate and a check for $50 and will be on display at the 2015 annual conference in September. They will then be submitted to the national poster contest for consideration for a national award and to be displayed at the 2016 NACD annual meeting in February.
Local officials congratulate the two winners and Clarke County SWCD hopes to see more posters from the K-12 students of Clarke County next year.