‘Let’s Clean Up OK’ is call to action for 2023 Trash Poster Contest Calendar winner

Fourteen Oklahoma students were recognized for their winning anti-littering art messages, which will be featured in the state’s 2024 annual Trash Poster Contest calendar. The creativity demonstrated by kindergarten through 12^th-grade students highlights the state’s anti-litter message through art. This year’s promotional poster winner, “Let’s Clean Up OK,” is a call to action for litter abatement in the state, especially along highways, and will be used statewide to promote recycling and responsible trash disposal.

The Oklahoma Department of Transportation and its partners sponsor this annual contest. There were 5,130 posters entered this year for the contest. The 14 contest winners will receive a monetary award, T-shirt, contest certificate, posterboard and laminated copy of their poster, sponsor promotional items and a state legislative citation of congratulations. The teachers of the winning students will receive a monetary award for classroom supplies and a two-night stay voucher to an Oklahoma state park courtesy of the Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Recreation.

“We’re always amazed every year how many students demonstrate their avid support for litter reduction by participating in the event. The number of entries is impressive,” said Melody Johnson, ODOT Beautification coordinator. “We appreciate those families, teachers and support systems that encourage such creativity and pride in the state.”

The Oklahoma Department of Transportation will provide the 2024 Trash Poster calendar for free while supplies last and calendars 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 advocate for positive environmental clean-up and anti-litter efforts.

The department spends nearly $6 million in taxpayer dollars annually to combat litter along state highways and interstates while the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority spends about $1 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 (being held Saturday, April 15) and the national Great American Cleanup, sponsored by Keep Oklahoma Beautiful.

The contest sponsors include Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality, Oklahoma Turnpike Authority, Cherokee Nation, Oklahoma’s Credit Union, OG&E, Office of Management and Enterprise Services – Web Modernization, Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department-Oklahoma State Parks, Keep Oklahoma Beautiful, Ardmore Beautification Council, Oklahoma City Beautiful, Oklahoma Rural Water Association, Solid Waste Institute of Northeast Oklahoma, Oklahoma State Department of Education, Oklahoma Department of Public Safety/Oklahoma Highway Patrol and Oklahoma Highway Safety Office. Next year’s contest begins Dec.1, 2023, and has a Jan. 31, 2024, deadline to contact local DEQ county offices to enter posters. 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: Sophia Cadwell, 2^nd grade, Canadian
• Second Place: Harmony Jaramillo, 2^nd grade, Muskogee
• Third Place: Lillian Arnold, 2^nd grade, Canadian

3rd - 5th Grade:

• First Place: Relic Foster, 3^rd grade, Hulbert
• Second Place: Nabor Adrian Porras, 4^th grade, Oklahoma City
• Third Place: Layla Kowena, 4^th grade, Cache

6th - 8th Grade:

• First Place: Brenda Castro, 8^th grade, Broken Arrow
• Second Place: Marvin Welsh, 8^th grade, Grove
• Third Place: Jamie Kang, 7^th grade, Norman

9th - 12th Grade:

• First Place: Kamila Martinkova, 11^th grade, Seminole
• Second Place: Olivia Zhao, 9^th grade, Ardmore
• Third Place: Madison Dilley, 12^th grade, Warner

PROMOTIONAL POSTER OF THE YEAR

• Mololuwa Adebusoye, 10^th grade, Norman

ENTRY FORM POSTER FOR 2022

Kristina Harjo, 11^th grade, Kingston