October 31, 2013
Help us help the natural environment. Enter MVFN’s Poster Contest!
By Theresa Peluso
Are you an elementary or secondary school student? Are you passionate about nature? Do you relish the opportunity to use your research, art, design, and written communication skills to inspire all of us to help our planet? Then this poster contest is for you. See full contest details here: Â Refuse-to-Use Poster Contest Details. Also info. and links to help you research the issue: Â MVFN’s Refuse to Use Poster Contest: links to help you research the issue.
As part of the Mississippi Valley Field Naturalists Plastic Bag reduction campaign, we invite all local elementary and secondary school students, including those who are home-schooled to participate in our Refuse-To-Use Poster Contest designed to reduce the use, locally, of single-use plastic bags. Because they are so lightweight and buoyant and take hundreds of year to break down, plastic bags escape into fields, forests, rivers and oceans, wreaking havoc on millions of animals and their habitats around the world.
MVFN’s Plastic Bag Reduction effort began earlier this year with the goal to raise awareness of the harm caused globally by the release of plastic bags into the natural environment. During this campaign, MVFN volunteers surveyed local businesses about plastic bag use and conducted small-scale surveys of numbers of people using re-useable containers vs. plastic bags for their shopping. MVFN volunteers also hosted a series of information tables at events such as the Almonte and Pakenham Fairs, Celtfest and Herbfest during the summer, where we asked the public to pledge to ‘Refuse-To-Use’ single-use plastic bags. We had 244 local residents and visitors take the pledge.
We now invite local students to design a poster to get the message out to even more people to Refuse-To-Use plastic bags. Here’s your chance at fame and fortune! The poster contest is on now and runs until November 29, 2013. A winner in each of four categories (Grades 1-3, 4-6, 7-9, and 10-12) will be selected. Each winner will receive a cash prize of $20 and winning posters will be displayed in local public spaces, so your work can inspire others. Winning posters will be those whose words and images seem best suited to inspire everyone to ‘refuse to use’ plastic bags. Your posters may show why plastic bags are harmful to the environment, and/or give advice to help people develop life-long habits to reduce or avoid their use.
Complete contest details for MVFN’s Refuse to Use Poster Contest, as well as links to help you research the issue of the ‘problem with plastic bags, will be posted in November on the Mississippi Valley Field Naturalists website at mvfn.ca. For additional information or questions, please contact MVFN’s Environmental Issues Chairperson, Theresa Peluso, at reduceplasticcampaign@gmail.com
