Schools
State Gifts Tree to Pocantico after Student Wins Poster Contest
The Department of Environmental Conservation planted a cherry tree at the school after a fifth-grader won the Arbor Day poster competition.
Pocantico Hills School has a newly planted cherry tree, thanks to the artistic talents of fifth-grader Sydney Starkey.
Sydney won the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Arbor Day Poster Contest this year. She was invited to Albany to celebrate Arbor Day in April. In early June, employees of the state agency visited the school for a tree-planting ceremony and to unveil a poster they made out of her artwork. Copies of the poster are being distributed around the state, and her art is also being printed on the New York State Arbor Day bookmark.
This year’s poster contest theme was “Trees for Bees.” Using watercolors, colored pencils and chalk, Sydney drew a honeycomb, three bees and a pink magnolia tree on her poster. In a short speech, she said trees and bees contribute so much to people’s everyday lives. “Without them, we would not be walking on the surface of the earth.”
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Sydney said she has loved art “ever since I could get my hands on a piece of paper, creating nothing but scribbles. Art is a big passion of mine and having my artwork be selected for this year’s poster contest is a big honor.”
Pocantico Hills employees dug the hole for the cherry tree in the pre-kindergarten/kindergarten play area and worked with DEC forester George Profous to plant it. Mr. Profous asked the fifth-graders to help him mix the dirt that came with the tree roots with the surrounding dirt to help the tree grow.
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The invitation to submit artwork for the contest went to fifth-grade students in more than 3,400 schools throughout New York, said Sally Kellogg, partnership coordinator for the DEC’s Urban Forestry Program. Each school selected a winner. The agency chooses a winner from nine regional finalists.
The paper used to print the poster is donated by International Paper, and the company will use it as one of its paper samples shown around the world, said Mary Martin, volunteer coordinator for the DEC’s Urban Forestry Program. “So you’re not just famous here,” she told Sydney. “You’re kind of a big deal.”
