Rhanda Vickery’s second-grade classroom at Waikoloa Elementary School won first place in the kindergarten to second-grade category for the Green Practices Flag Contest at the 12th annual Earth and Ocean Festival at Outrigger Keauhou Beach Resort. Diane Aoki’s fifth-grade classroom at Kealakehe Elementary School won first place in the third- through fifth-grade category.
Rhanda Vickery’s second-grade classroom at Waikoloa Elementary School won first place in the kindergarten to second-grade category for the Green Practices Flag Contest at the 12th annual Earth and Ocean Festival at Outrigger Keauhou Beach Resort. Diane Aoki’s fifth-grade classroom at Kealakehe Elementary School won first place in the third- through fifth-grade category.
For the contest, teachers and students created “flags” using recycled materials such as old sheets, cloth or paper. Students were encouraged to pick a sustainable theme from one of four categories: water, life, wai; food, earth, kuleana; energy, fire, mana; or air, breath, ha. Students drew flags depicting scenes that encourage actions to protect and cherish the planet.
Flags are displayed in the lobby of the Keauhou Beach Resort for the two weeks surrounding the Earth and Ocean Festival.
Additional winners in the kindergarten to second grade classroom category include: second place, Toni Reynold’s second grade at Kealakehe; third place, Autumn Tucker’s kindergarten classroom at Honaunau Elementary. Second place in the third- through fifth-grade classroom category went to Tracy Foyle’s fourth-graders at Kahakai Elementary, Joy Agard’s fifth-grade classroom at Kealakehe Elementary took third in the same category. Honorable mention was awarded to Anne Meheula-Naihe’s students at Hua O Ke Ao.
The Kona-Kohala Chamber of Commerce and University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program, hosts of the festival, thanked all students who participated in this year’s contest. More than 230 flags were displayed in the hotel lobby.