Trial Farm Village Council, under the ongoing PACT funded project “Otro Benque/Trial Farm Reforestation Project and Recreational Park Upliftment,” held a Riparian Forest Poster Competition on November 4, 2011 between the Standard Six Students of Primary Schools in Orange Walk. Yahaira Urbina (Ecology Officer, Trial Farm Village Council) presented the criteria to the schools prior to the final day and those who expressed interest worked with their teachers and classmates to develop their poster. Students were judged on several things including attractiveness, originality, the message provided about the importance of the riparian forest, and how they presented the poster. Some students worked alone while others paired off and others were in groups of three. Since PACT had two staff members as judges, we were able to see firsthand what these posters were all about.

A first tour of the posters intrigued us; we saw some really creative ones and others that didn’t stand out as much. But nothing prepared us for the explanations. All students had a wealth of knowledge about their posters; even if it was not the best artistically the story behind them amazed us.

In the end however, we could have only selected three winners. Caesar Vasquez from Trial Farm Primary School walked away with third prize; Zeena Aragon, Jay C. Cantun, and Diana Montez from Louisiana Government School walked away with second prize; and all of Chapel’s Schools posters received first place with Raul Calderdon and Absalom Orellana receiving the most points. The other students from Chapel were Maria Nembhard, Uriely Grey, Elizabeth Grant and Shantel Sutherland.

What was outstanding about Raul’s and Absalom’s projects is that they were well rounded on the entire subject of conservation. They went as far as wearing business suits with neckties and inventing a company called the DRFO – Developing our Riparian Forests Organization. They blew all four judges away with their knowledge and PACT can already picture particularly Raul as CEO of a conservation organization in the future.

This competition was more than creating a beautiful poster. It made the participating students, teachers, schools and community more knowledgeable about the importance of the riparian forests and brought more awareness and dialogue of conservation activities into the classrooms.

PACT congratulates Trial Farm Village Council on this outstanding project, all those who assisted, and the participating students in preparing such great presentations. For more photos click here.