The winners of the “Going Green in the Blackstone Valley” poster contest were announced at a ceremony at Alternatives’ Whitin Mill. The competition had challenged Valley middle school students to create a poster which spoke to environmental concerns and awareness throughout the Blackstone Valley. It was sponsored by Alternatives, the Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce Education Foundation and ValleyCAST. Fifteen posters were chosen as finalists and were displayed in Alternatives’ Red Brick Mill.

From those fifteen posters judges chose first and second place winners and the public viewing the exhibition chose a “People’s Choice” award. First place prize of $250 went to the team of Alexandra Driscoll, Samantha Prescott and Elizabeth Carse from Northbridge Middle School for their poster, “Going Green in the Blackstone Valley.” The Second place prize of $200 went to the team of Emily Teixeira, Lauren Welcome and Alex LeMay of Assumption School for their poster “Operation Green.” The People’s Choice Award and the prize of $300 also went to Assumption School for the “Clean Energy” poster created by Lauren LaRusso. Whitin Middle School and Molly Wallace received an Honorable Mention for the “Think Green” poster. All prize money was awarded directly to the schools. Each participating student who worked on the 15 finalist posters received a $50 US Savings Bond.

In announcing the winners, Dennis Rice, executive director of Alternatives said “As part of our taking a leadership role in the environmental concerns in the Valley, we want to get young people thinking about the future. We’re going to make this an annual event and hope to have even more schools involved next year.”

Joanne Holahan, a sixth grade science teacher at Assumption School in Millbury, offered that the students learned more than something about ecology; “They learned about collaboration with different organizations, disparate groups and how to come together for one exciting project.”

Alexandra Driscoll, who worked on the 1st place poster, said she learned a lot about the condition of the Blackstone River but also that “You can do something about it if you put your mind to it.” She added, “If you don’t it will only get worse.”

The exhibition runs through the end of June at Alternatives’ Whitin Mill. It will then move to River Bend Farm for the rest of the summer.