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PHOTO COURTESY OF CITY OF TACOMA

ENVIROCHALLENGERS. John Inch and Jacqueline Fuller are the city of Tacoma’s EnviroChallenger educators who visit Tacoma’s public, private and home-schooled students to give fun lessons in the five “R’s” of environmental consciousness: reduce, reuse, recycle, respect and responsible.

City sponsors art contest for all Tacoma students in grades k-8

By Matt Nagle

The city of Tacoma’s EnviroChallenger and EnviroKids programs are holding an art contest for all Tacoma students in kindergarten through eighth grades. The contest is being sponsored by the Tacoma Public Library, Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium and Tacoma Rainiers, all of which will be providing prizes for first, second and third-place winners in three grade categories.

The theme for the contest is the “five R’s” of environmental consciousness – reduce, reuse, recycle, respect and responsible. Students are asked to create a poster no bigger than 11x17 inches to illustrate which of these “R’s” is most important to them and their family and how they use that “R” to keep their school, home or neighborhood clean.

Winners will be announced on the EnviroKids website on Earth Day, April 22. First-place winners will receive passes for four to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. Second-place winners will get tickets to a Tacoma Rainiers baseball game, and those who place third will be rewarded with a children’s book donated by the Tacoma Public Library about the importance of taking care of the environment. All nine winners’ artwork will be included in a large poster that will be displayed in schools and public places throughout Tacoma.

Everyone who enters has a chance of seeing their artwork displayed on the EnviroKids website art gallery.

Nora Doyle with the city of Tacoma’s Community Relations Office said that for last year’s inaugural art contest nearly 150 Tacoma students entered.

The city’s EnviroChallenger program, part of the public works and environmental services division, teaches free environmental lessons to Tacoma’s public, private and home-schooled students in second through eighth grades. They learn about water quality, recycling, the plight of Northwest salmon and how their own behaviors can help make our surroundings greener and cleaner.

Jacqueline Fuller and John Inch are the EnviroChallenger educators. They taught almost 600 lessons in 43 Tacoma schools during the 2006-07 school year, which included all Tacoma public middle schools.  

“Teachers call or e-mail us and request that the EnviroChallengers come and speak to the students,” Doyle explained. “They learn science lessons focused on the environment. They’re really fun and the kids just love it.”

EnviroKids is a web-based offshoot of EnviroChallenger that offers activities, art projects and other things young people can work on to learn more about the environment.

Visit the website at www.ci.tacoma.wa.us/envirokids to download an entry form. Send entries to: City of Tacoma EnviroKids Contest, 733 Market St., Rm. 11, Tacoma, WA 98402. Submissions must be postmarked by April 2.

For more information or to receive an entry form by mail, e-mail envirokids@cityoftacoma.org or call (253) 591-5066.

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