Fifth Grade Student Wins Alabama Arbor Day Poster Contest

Mitchell Thomas Nolte, a fifth-grade student at Saks Elementary School in Anniston, has won the state’s 2006 Arbor Day National Poster Contest. He will be presented with $50 and a one-year Alabama Urban Forestry Association membership for his winning poster, designed around the contest theme “Trees Are Terrific… in all Shapes and Sizes!”

Nolte and contest runners-up will participate in a tree planting ceremony with Alabama first lady Patsy Riley on the Capitol grounds in Montgomery, Feb. 21. He will receive an Arbor Week Proclamation from the Governor and speak on “The Importance of Arbor Day and What the Arbor Day Poster Contest Means to Me.”

Nolte’s poster continues on to the national competition sponsored by The National Arbor Day Foundation and Toyota Motor Corporation. The Alabama competition is sponsored by the Alabama Urban Forestry Association, Alabama Cooperative Extension System, Auburn University School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, Toyota Motor Company and the Alabama Forestry Association.

The national winner will be announced on April 30, from winners representing 48 states and the District of Columbia on National Arbor Day. The winner will be a special guest at the annual National Awards celebration held in Nebraska City, the historic hometown of Arbor Day founder J. Sterling Morton.

Two runners-up will also be recognized in the Alabama contest. They are Alexis Cooper, Whitesburg Elementary School in Huntsville, and Isaac Thackston, Wedowee Elementary School in Wedowee.

The Arbor Day National Poster Contest is open to fifth-grade students in states with a designated contest coordinator. The national contest has been held since 1992 to help promote the importance of Arbor Day and tree planting. More information about the Alabama Arbor Day Poster Contest is available by contacting David West at (256) 237-1621.

Posted by Jim Langcuster at February 21, 2006 10:54 AM | TrackBack