Congratulations to eighth-grader Winnie Wei, who is one of 14 students statewide whose poster has been selected for inclusion in the 2025 New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) calendar.

The “Create A Watershed Super Hero” Poster Contest was sponsored by the DEC and the New York Water Environment Association (NYWEA).  This poster contest’s intent was to encourage students to learn about their role in the watershed they live in and how to conserve and protect our water resources, now and for future generations.

A watershed is a geographic area whose rainfall, snowmelt, streams and rivers all flow or drain into a common body of water. That common body of water could be a lake, reservoir or groundwater.

Posters were required to contain original hand-drawn artwork, meaning no computer-generated posters or graphics. Copyrighted characters were excluded from being a part of students’ work.

This past January, all seventh and eighth-grade sciences class participated in a mini-unit on Freshwater protection, explained Middle School Science Department Chair Jennifer Zaro.

“We learned what a watershed was and why it is important to protect it,” she said. “We learned how some of our everyday activities can pollute our water supply and how we can make small changes to keep the water clean. The culmination of the unit was to create a poster that represented a super hero who would protect the watershed. All students made posters and then the Science Department teachers chose the ‘Top 30’ to be sent to Albany for judging.”

From all the statewide entries, DEC and NYWEA members vetted all posters and picked their own “Top 30” entries.  NYWEA membership and DEC staff then voted for the 14 winning posters to be spotlighted in the 2025 calendar.

“We’re very proud of and happy for Winnie and equally proud to have Minisink Valley represented in this calendar,” Mrs. Zaro added.