Six student artists representing three schools in the City of Escondido are the 2020 winners of the City’s annual “Love Water, Save Water” poster contest. For 29 years, the City of Escondido has provided local fourth-grade students in its water service area the opportunity to illustrate water stewardship through artwork and creativity
Six student artists representing three schools in the City of Escondido are the 2020 winners of the City’s annual “Love Water, Save Water” poster contest.
For 29 years, the City of Escondido has provided local fourth-grade students in its water service area the opportunity to illustrate water stewardship through artwork and creativity. The contest is held in partnership with other North County water agencies to promote water conservation and water pollution prevention.
Students must enter their original work with no trademarked characters. They are encouraged to use lots of color and to avoid leaving empty space. Entries are judged on the depiction of the theme, originality, and poster design. Posters cannot be computer-generated.
First place: Gracie Scher, Quantum Academy. Photo: City of Escondido
Second place: Filip Kupiec, L.R. Green Elementary. Photo: City of Escondido
Third place: Angelaiya Nazareno, St. Mary School. Photo: City of Escondido
The top three winning posters will appear in the 2021 North County water awareness calendar.
Taylor Lampman, Quantum Academy. Photo: City of Escondido
Jacob Marshall, Quantum Academy. Photo: City of Escondido
Lilly Gibbs, St. Mary School. Photo: City of Escondido.
The City of Escondido supports local public and private schools by providing the Water Science Education Program to elementary and afterschool programs. The program teaches water science to raise awareness of Earth’s resources through interactive and collaborative activities supplementing each school’s science curriculum and to help meet Next Generation Science Standards. The annual poster contest is part of the program.
Students who will be in fourth grade in the 2020-2021 school year can start planning their entry. The annual deadline is in April. The City of Escondido website has contest rules and the entry form.
Each year, the Fallbrook Public Utility District’s water storage tank uphill from South Mission Road is painted with new numbers. There’s a story about local Fallbrook history behind the fresh design on the “Rattlesnake Tank.”
The Fallbrook Public Utility District changes the painted numbers on the tank to reflect the year incoming seniors at Fallbrook High School will graduate. Staff recently painted over the “20,” changing it to “21” to welcome the graduating class of 2021.
The reason for the annual external makeover dates back 35 years. Before painting the tank, Fallbrook High seniors took on a longstanding dare. They would climb up the hill in the middle of the night, scale the tank and then paint it themselves.
“Since it’s a long way down, our staff of more than 35 years ago became concerned for their safety,” said Fallbrook PUD’s Noelle Denke. “So we installed a fence around the tank.”
But it didn’t deter the energetic students. Instead, they began jumping the fence in the middle of the night. So the District struck a deal with the students. If they would stop risking their safety for the dare, the district would safely paint the tank every year to commemorate them.
“And we’ve been doing it ever since,” said Denke.
Fallbrook Public Utility District utility workers Colter Shannon and Bryan Wagner do the honors of changing the painted numbers on Rattlesnake Tank for the Class of 2021. Photo: Fallbrook Public Utility District
It takes District staff about eight hours to paint the 25-foot-tall numbers onto the 3.6 million-gallon tank. Since the tank shares the space with several cell towers, the Fallbrook Public Utility District makes arrangements with the owners to power down their towers. Then crews safely hoist themselves up to the tower and get to work painting.
Rattlesnake Tank was built in the early 1950s and is one of Fallbrook’s oldest and most visible water tanks.
Three fourth grade student artists were honored by the Olivenhain Municipal Water District Board of Directors at its September 9 meeting as the winners of the District’s 2020 Water Awareness Poster Contest. This year’s theme asked students to illustrate how they “Love Water, Save Water.”
Three fourth grade student artists were honored by the Olivenhain Municipal Water District Board of Directors at its September 9 meeting as the winners of the District’s 2020 Water Awareness Poster Contest.
This year’s theme asked students to illustrate how they “Love Water, Save Water.”
The district annually invites fourth-grade students living or attending school within the Olivenhain Municipal Water District service area to enter the contest. Because of the change to distance learning in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the contest deadline was extended to June 15. Six classes from the district’s service area participated.
“We have been holding this poster contest for nearly three decades,” said OMWD board member Bob Topolovac. “This year, the classroom setting may have changed, but it’s reassuring to see that the students’ creativity and excitement for water conservation is as strong as ever.”
Photo: Olivenhain Municipal Water District
First Place – Ruchika Kench, Stone Ranch Elementary. Ruchika Kench’s poster depicts the planet Earth surrounded by handwritten messages portraying the value of water and the importance of preserving water for all to enjoy.
Photo: Olivenhain Municipal Water District
Second Place – Kylie Barbosa, Stone Ranch Elementary. Kylie Barbosa created a colorful illustration of bright flowers surrounded by a rainbow and multicolored raindrops. She pledges to drink water from a reusable bottle and to take shorter showers.
Photo: Olivenhain Municipal Water District
Third Place – Ryan King, Flora Vista Elementary. Ryan King drew an image of a person fishing with a sunset and a heart in the background. He recommends collecting rainwater to irrigate plants as a way to conserve water.
Kendra Jones, the first place winner’s fourth-grade teacher, also received a $50 gift card to Lakeshore Learning Store for classroom supplies. New 2021 calendars featuring the winning artwork will be available to the public for free from the Olivenhain Municipal Water District in December.
Chula Vista, Calif. – On Wednesday, September 9, the Sweetwater Authority Governing Board received a presentation from A Reason To Survive on how grant funding from the Authority will be used to educate the community on water issues.
Encinitas, Calif.—Olivenhain Municipal Water District’s Board of Directors recognized the winners of the 2020 North County water agencies’ Water Awareness Poster Contest at its September 9 meeting.
Six student artists from schools in the Otay Water District’s service area were named as winners of the district’s 2020 Water is Life Student Poster Contest. Entries were selected as those best demonstrating creativity and awareness of water-use efficiency through art.
Six student artists from schools in the Otay Water District’s service area were named as winners of the district’s 2020 Water is Life Student Poster Contest. Entries were selected as those best demonstrating creativity and awareness of water-use efficiency through art.
The annual contest is one of many educational programs offered by the district as an opportunity for students to learn and reflect on the importance of water conservation and stewardship. Students are encouraged to create a poster depicting the theme “Water is Life” which relates to using water wisely.
In February 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, the district invited students from elementary through high schools in its service area to participate in the contest. Despite the pandemic forcing many people to work and learn from home, the contest remained open as a stay-at-home activity students could enjoy.
“At a time when most are working or learning from home during the pandemic, it was refreshing to see students, parents, and our Board members excited about this educational, creative, and fun project,” said Eileen Salmeron, communications assistant, and contest coordinator.
The district selected first through third-place winners from elementary and high school. The district recognized all winners from each category with a certificate, art kit, and goody bag of items with the Otay Water District logo and a conservation message. First and second place winners also received gift cards.
The Otay Board of Directors honored its winning student artists at its monthly virtual meeting on Sept. 2.
“As I grew up, I started learning that the Earth has an expiration date,” said Sofia Perez Valles, first-place winner in the high school category. “Through this poster, I was able to continue the passion of mine to help save the Earth because I was able to inform people of the different ways that we can support water-use efficiency.”
The six local winners will now compete in the regional Metropolitan Water District of Southern California annual student poster contest for a chance to be selected among entries from participating water agencies and featured in its 2021 Water is Life Calendar. In 2020, district calendar poster contest winner Maya Santana, a fifth-grade student from Wolf Canyon Elementary School, was selected to appear in the regional calendar.
First place: Zahraa Alzayadi, Fifth grade, Jamacha Elementary School. Photo: Otay Water District
Second place, Elementary Schools: Amy Coghill, third grade, Tiffany Elementary School. Photo: Otay Water District
Third place, Elementary Schools: Sophie Coghill, kindergarten, Tiffany Elementary School. Photo: Otay Water District
First place, High Schools: Sofia Perez Valles, 12th Grade, Olympian High School. Photo: Otay Water District
Second place, High Schools: Stephenie Pace, 12th grade, Olympian High School. Photo: Otay Water District
Third place, High Schools: Lucia Perez Valles, 10th grade, Olympian High School. Photo: Otay Water District
To learn more about the Otay Water District’s annual poster contest and other educational programs, go to otaywater.gov/education.
Thousands of students returning to the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York this month are being asked to wear masks in public, register their health status online each day and electronically log classroom visits for contact tracing if a coronavirus outbreak occurs. But the most novel effort at the school to measure and limit virus spread will require little effort and come quite naturally.
Students need only use the bathroom.
At more than 15 dormitories and on-campus apartment buildings, sewage is being tested twice weekly for genetic evidence of virus shed in feces. This provides a kind of early-warning system of an outbreak, limiting the need to test every student for Covid-19. If the disease is found in sewage, individual tests can be administered to identify the source.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
Sweetwater Authority Logo 2019