Centennial State News

The City of Brighton is once again participating in the annual Arbor Day Fifth Grade Poster Contest, an artistic competition for public, private and home-schooled fifth graders across the state. This year’s theme is “Dream as BIG as Trees.” This is an opportunity for students to show their creativity to raise awareness of trees and the important role they play in the environment and our quality of life. The contest is statewide but will also be held at the City level in Brighton. The winner of each Brighton school will move on to the state contest and their posters will be put on display at the State Capitol. 

1st Place

Student: The winning student will be introduced to City Council on Tuesday, April 18 at City Hall. They will receive daytime passes to the Denver Botanic Gardens as well as passes to Wagon Wheel Skating Rink.

Teacher: The teacher of the winning student will be offered a free tree.*

Class: All students in the winning class will receive a tree seedling.**

School: Arbor Day will be celebrated at the school with the winning entry, where the winning class gets to help plant a tree for their school. The date for this will be Friday, April 21 (Colorado Arbor Day).

2nd Place

Student: The second-place prize includes passes to Wagon Wheel Skating Rink.

Submission requirements: 

• One entry per student 
• Must be an original artwork created by a fifth grade student 
• Entries should be done on 12-inch x 18-inch paper (or as close as possible to those measurements)
• The poster must relate to the contest theme, “Dream as BIG as Trees” must be on
• the poster, and all words must be legible and spelled correctly
• Entries may be done in marker, crayon, paint pens, watercolor, ink, acrylic, colored pencil, and/or tempera paint
• Entries must be done on paper, which allows for duplication, display, and framing
• Student’s name, grade, school, teacher’s name and contact phone number must be printed on the back of the poster in pencil 
• Student’s first and last name must be written in the lower right-hand corner of the front of the poster

Not accepted: 

• Collages - please do not glue anything onto your poster
• Computer or photo-generated art and printing
• Matted, mounted, laminated, framed, or folded entries
• Names of commercial products, companies, and/or organizations
• Artwork completed by more than one artist

Entries become the property of the Colorado Tree Coalition and may not be returned. The deadline to submit an entry is Friday, March 31.

*We will do our best to accommodate tree species preference, but options may be limited due to varying supply. Trees are in containers and roughly 5-8 feet tall.

**Seedlings should be available on the day of the Arbor Day celebration, but due to weather and other variables, they could be delayed.

For more information or to submit an entry, please contact Patrick Laphilliph, City of Brighton Forester, at plaphilliph@brightonco.gov or 303-655-2048.

Original source can be found here.