April 30, 2004– Students from St. John's four, elementary schools presented 13 entries into the Friends of V.I. National Park's Earth Day Recycled Art contest. Eleven entries qualified as artwork and two as performance pieces.
First prize, an overnight stay at the V.I. Environmental Resource Station, went to Guy Benjamin School's fourth grade. The class performed a song and dance about keeping St. John clean. Four girls sang a rap song to a choreographed dance. The rest of the class played instruments made of recycled materials.
Pine Peace School's fifth-grade class won second prize by creating a circus out of odds and ends of recyclables. An old, bicycle wheel and an umbrella were used to make a Ferris wheel. As its prize, this class gets to spend a day playing minigolf at Pastory Gardens.
Third place went to Marla Powell's first-grade class at Julius E. Sprauve School. The students made a "Can-niverous" shark out of tin cans. This class gets a classroom pizza party from Ronnie's Pizza N' Mo as its prize.
Students from St. John Christian Academy also participated in the event.
Other entries included a Mother Earth quilt, an eight-armed "Eco-Trashopus" and a song "The Island Recycle Mash" sung to the tune of "The Monster Mash."
Friend's program manager, Emily Burton, said the entries were all excellent. Sis Frank, Andromeada Childs, Paul Jones, Vernon Lake, Mary Blazine and Friends President Joe Kessler judged them April 27 at the St. John School of the Arts.
"We were blown away," Burton said.
The Friends saw the contest as a chance for students to have fun while helping the Friends get its message out about the importance of recycling.
Burton said that although the Anti-litter and Beautification Commission's recycling program is currently not in operation, people should look at other ways to recycle.
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