STAR JOURNAL REPORT

The Oneida County Land and Water Conservation Department hosted its conservation speaking and poster contest at the Oneida County courthouse in Rhinelander last month.  The contest reaches out to area youth, kindergarten through grade 12, to create messages about conservation and environmental awareness.  This year, students from elementary and middle schools competed in the two contests.

This year’s theme for the poster contest was “Watersheds: Our Water, Our Home.”

The winners have been announced, and are as follows:

MIDDLE DIVISION

First place: Kyleah Hartman, sixth grade, James Williams Middle School.

Second place tie: Clarissa Wilberding and Lillian Badgley, both sixth grade, James Williams Middle School.

Third place: Sawyer Szews, fourth grade, Sugar Camp Elementary School

JUNIOR DIVISION

First place: Ella Cordy, seventh grade, James Williams Middle School.

Second place: Sophia Laumann, seventh grade, James Williams Middle School

Third place:  Paige Oleinik, seventh grade, James Williams Middle School.

Eighteen other posters in the middle and junior divisions received honorable mention. Kyleah Hartman’s winning poster also took a first place trophy at the area competition that was held Feb. 9 in Wisconsin Rapids.  Her poster moves on to be judged at the state competition March 14.

A slide show of artists and speakers is located on the Oneida County Land and Water Conservation Department website, www.oclw.org.

The conservation and environmental awareness speaking contest was held Jan. 25, at the Oneida County courthouse, where students presented their speeches before spectators.  The speech topics included citizen-based monitoring, hazardous waste, crown vetch and the emerald ash borer.

The winners and their speech titles in all divisions are as follows:

ELEMENTARY DIVISION

First place: Kaya Szews, “Homicidal Hazardous Waste.”

Second place: Tobias Volkmann, “Tree Up, Tree Down: End of a Species.”

Third place: Samantha Gardner, “Crown Vetch, the Royal Disaster.”

SENIOR DIVISION

First place: Martin Hoger, “An Army of One, Citizen-Based Monitoring.”

Kaya Szews advanced to the area competition Feb. 9, where she also placed first.  She will deliver her speech at the state competition in Lake Geneva March 14.