Fourteen Oklahoma students’ art featured in 2022 Trash Poster Contest

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Oct. 11, 2021
PR# 21-035

Fourteen talented Oklahoma students have the opportunity to spread the state’s anti-litter messaging and will be featured in the state’s annual Trash Poster Contest calendar. The original work of the kindergarten through 12th-grade students highlights the consequences and negative impacts of littering through the use of art, catchphrases and puns.

The Oklahoma Department of Transportation and its partners sponsor this annual contest. The 14 contest winners will receive a monetary award, a T-shirt and face mask with their design, a posterboard and laminated copy of their poster and a state legislative citation of congratulations. The teachers of the winning students will receive a monetary award for classroom supplies and a two-day stay voucher to an Oklahoma state park courtesy of the Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Recreation.

“We continue to be amazed by the quality of art we receive from our state’s gifted students and their passion for a healthy, cleaner environment,” said Melody Johnson, ODOT beautification coordinator. “Their work continues to inspire us in our mission to end littering across Oklahoma. Thank you to all the students for their submissions and to their wonderful teachers for including this important public messaging in their classrooms.”

ODOT will provide the 2022 Trash Poster calendar for free while supplies last and are expected to be distributed to state agencies, businesses and schools statewide in December. The Promotional Poster of the Year will be printed in large format for the public to use in displays to spread the word that litter is harmful to our state and needs to immediately end.

The department spends nearly $6 million in taxpayer dollars annually to combat litter along state highways and interstates while the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority spends $1.5 million annually to clean along toll roads. Those totals do not include the hundreds of volunteer hours spent fighting litter across the state through events like ODOT’s annual TRASH-OFF and the national Great American Cleanup, sponsored by Keep Oklahoma Beautiful.

The contest sponsors include Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), Oklahoma Turnpike Authority, Oklahoma’s Credit Union, OG&E, Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department-Oklahoma State Parks, Keep Oklahoma Beautiful, Ardmore Beautification Council, Oklahoma Rural Water Association, Solid Waste Institute of Northeast Oklahoma, Oklahoma State Department of Education, Oklahoma City Beautiful, Oklahoma Department of Public Safety, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and the Oklahoma Highway Safety Office.

Next year’s contest begins Dec.1, 2021, and has a Jan. 31, 2022, deadline to enter posters to local DEQ county offices. For more information about the contest and entry rules, go online to www.odot.org/tpc or contact the ODOT Beautification Office at 405-521-2557 or email beautification@ODOT.org.

The public can view winning posters online at www.odot.org/tpc  

The state winners are:

Kindergarten - 2nd Grade:

• First Place: Angel Arroyo, 2nd Grade, Del City
• Second Place: Kenady Kerr, 2nd Grade, Fort Gibson
• Third Place: Emma Wilcox, 2nd Grade, Canadian

3rd - 5th Grade:

• First Place: Harper Highful, 3rd Grade, Broken Bow
• Second Place: Madison Brunner, 5th Grade, Blanchard
• Third Place: Josie Summers, 5th Grade, Blanchard

6th - 8th Grade:

• First Place: Cassie McAlister, 6th Grade, Kingston
• Second Place: Zoey Mitchell, 6th Grade, Fargo
• Third Place: Chaselynn Ezell, 7th Grade, Idabel

9th - 12th Grade:

• First Place: Jessica Zimmerman, 12th Grade, Ardmore
• Second Place: Destiny Taft-McCall, 12th Grade, Guthrie
• Third Place: Susana Sampler, 11th Grade, Hooker

PROMOTIONAL POSTER OF THE YEAR

·       Brock Bailey, 12th Grade, Collinsville

ENTRY FORM POSTER FOR 2022

·       KaraLee Bundy, 10th Grade, Idabel

-www.odot.org-

(Editors and News Directors: Poster photos for local winners can be provided upon request. For questions, please call the ODOT Strategic Communications Division at 405-521-6000.)