Conservation District announces poster contest winners

By Jennifer Kenck

Hill County Conservation district

Nine students from across Hill County participated in the National Association of Conservation District's Annual Poster Contest. The grade levels of contestants ranged from kindergarten to ninth grade.

Judging was completed by the Hill County Conservation District Board of Supervisors at the April 15 board meeting.

First-place winners in each category will go on to compete in the state competition held in Helena this coming June.

Each year's contest theme is different than the previous years'. Contestants were encouraged to think about pollinator species, both animal and plant.

Several of this year's posters featured one of the unsung heroes of the pollinator world: bats. Normally relegated to the world of haunted houses and scary movies, without these nocturnal juggernauts, many plants would go unpollinated.

The Hill County Conservation District thanks each contestant for submitting their artwork and congratulates the winners in each category:

First place winners:

• Kindergarten and first-grade: Izzy Dumas

• Second- and third-grade:, Cassie Gibson

• Fourth- through sixth-grade: Grace Boyce

• Seventh- through ninth-grade: Jazmin Dumas.

Contest participants: were: Kindergarten and first-grade: Jeffery Seymour; Wayne Durbin and Bryn Hinckley. Fourth- through sixth-grade, Savannah TheBoy and Mary Gibson.