From hundreds of entries come just six finalists in the Southampton Village Shopping Bag Logo Contest conducted by SAVE, the Mayor's Environmental Advisory Committee.
The finalists come from six area schools and range from 1st grade through 12th. They are:
Monika Santiago of ; Debra Peters and Cathy Musick, teachers.
Juliana Stein of Southampton Elementary School; Denise Silva-Dennis, teacher.
Abby Clemente of ; Jennifer Charron, teacher.
Lindsay Wickershan of ; Jennifer Keller, teacher.
Madison O'Connor of ; Amanda Tomforde, teacher.
Sophia Guillo of ; Barbara Imperiale is Sophia's teacher.
A Grand Prize Winner has been selected from the six students above and will be announced by the Honorable Mayor Mark Epley this Saturday at 11 a.m. at the on Pond Lane. Awards and certificates will be presented by the mayor. The Grand Prize Winner will receive $50 and each of the five runners-up will receive $25.
In addition to earning the top spot in SAVE's contest, the Grand Prize Winner's logo will be printed in white on the side of a reusable navy blue shopping bag; bound to be a collectable! The bag will be given out free of charge to each person who visits the Cultural Center to see the children's art submissions.
The finalist's artwork will be on display this week at the Southampton Cultural Center on Thursday and Friday from noon to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Awards will be presented at 11 a.m. on Saturday.
Southampton Village was the first in New York to pass legislation encouraging the use of reusable shopping bags in lieu of single-use paper and plastic. The logo contest is part of the educational component that SAVE pledged to the Village Board of Trustees when they .
It is estimated that nearly 10,000 single-use plastic and paper shopping bags have been eliminated each week from area landfills, just by the enactment of this single program alone.
SAVE is the acronym for Southampton Advocates for the Village Environment; an environmental advisory committee formed by Mayor Mark Epley in 2008. It is staffed by Village residents, Roger Blaugh, co-chair, Mackie Finnerty, co-chair and Susan Dubner. Two other hard-working committee members, Linda Talty-Stabler and Jim Nelan, co-chaired the Logo Competition for SAVE.
The Village and SAVE thank each of the teachers who incorporated this year's Logo Contest into their busy curriculum and we congratulation all those talented students who entered.
Be sure to stop by the Cultural Center this week to see the children's entries. All are invited to attend the Awards Ceremony this Saturday at 11 a.m and receive a free shopping bag (Satuday only).
