Wilton Wildlife Preserve & Park’s 2024 Annual Earth Day Essay Contest Winners – Event June 2

WILTON—Wilton Wildlife Preserve & Park announced this year’s Annual Earth Day Essay Contest winners, in a contest that promotes increased environmental consciousness, community participation, and protection of the planet worldwide. 

Over 150 entries were received from schools in the region. There will be a ceremony for the winners at the Annual Wildlife Festival at noon on Sunday, June 2, when contest winners from each of the categories will receive their $50 cash prize. 

Upper Elementary School winner Owen Rogan, of Lake Avenue Elementary School, Grade 5, wrote, in part: “Every year, eight million metric tons of plastic waste enters our oceans. We, as a group, need to put a stop to this. Animals are dying because of all the waste entering the oceans and getting dumped or lost in the wilderness. By 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean. Even though plastic has been particularly useful to humankind, we need to find a better alternative for plastic, fast…” 

Additional winning essays were submitted by: Rory Boggan, Ballard Rd Elementary School, Grade 2; Prateek Chinni, Menands UFSD, Grade 7, and Cameron Stockwell, Homeschool, Grade 10. 

The mission of Wilton Wildlife includes environmental education as a priority, and Earth Day is the perfect opportunity to engage youth in important environmental conversations. The Earth Day Essay Contest was initiated to give school-aged children a chance to research and engage in climate issues and actively seek out solutions to protect the future resources of this planet and to bring their thoughts and solutions to the climate crisis. 

For more information, call the Wilton Wildlife office at 518-450-0321 or email info@wiltonpreserve.org, or visit the Wilton Wildlife website at wiltonpreserve.org.