Nearly a dozen elementary school students were recognized for their Earth Day recycling poster contest entries by Mayor Janice S. Mironov and East Windsor Township Council at the council’s April 24 meeting.
The poster contest, which is held in conjunction with Earth Day, aims to raise children’s awareness of the environment. The contest is sponsored by the Township Council and the Clean Communities Committee.
The contest was open to children in kindergarten through fifth grade at the Ethel McKnight, Walter C. Black, Grace N. Rogers and Perry L. Drew elementary schools in the East Windsor Regional School District.
The contest encourages children to take an interest in the environment and to do all they can to keep the planet green, Mironov said. This will ensure that when they grow up, they will have a “happy, healthy, green place to live,” she said.
“It was difficult to select the winners,” Mironov told the children, whose posters are on display this month at the municipal building on Lanning Boulevard. “You are all winners and you should be proud of everyone who submitted a poster. The posters were really wonderful. They were creative, they were colorful and they were imaginative.”
The first place winner in the K-2 contest was Julia Mahoney of the Ethel McKnight Elementary School. Nina Marie Drago of the Walter C. Black Elementary School and Sophia Acque of the Grace N. Rogers Elementary School tied for second place. Joey Rogers of the Walter C. Black Elementary School and twins Dahlia Patten and Meadow Patten of the Ethel McKnight Elementary School tied for third place.
In the grades 3-5 contest, Russell Freiheit and Elliot Vertiz, both of the Grace N. Rogers Elementary School, tied for first place. Vedant Mitra of the Perry L. Drew Elementary School earned second place honors. There was a three-way tie for third place among Rucha Shah of the Grace N. Rogers Elementary School, Jasmin Lawrence of the Perry L. Drew Elementary School and Larkin Sosa of the Ethel McKnight Elementary School.
Each child received a mayoral certificate of recognition and a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble, donated by corporate sponsor Shiseido America, which has offices in East Windsor.
Mironov praised all of the children and remarked that Nina Marie Drago was so interested in the environment that not only did she create a poster, she also attended the stream cleanup day and helped to pick up litter on April 14.
Wrapping up the presentation, the mayor presented a special proclamation to the Grace N. Rogers Elementary School, which had the most participating students in the annual poster contest.
“It is most important to get involved. Winning is great, but I also want to recognize the involvement of all the students,” Mironov said. “This is a fun event for us and it’s great the students want to be involved and share their posters with us. Happy Earth Day. Keep it going.”