The Wrack

Last week, I drove with Karrie Schwaab (Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge) to Yarmouth, Castine, and Holden to deliver the iPad, digital camera, binoculars, and bookstore gift certificate to the top four prize winners in our Silent Spring essay contest. Honorable mention students were also recognized with copies of Silent Spring, and all of the seventh graders who participated in the contest were awarded certificates of achievement.

Here are the top-ranked essays submitted by the winners of the 50th anniversary Silent Spring essay contest. Thank you to these and the other 257 Maine seventh graders who submitted essays.

The response to the Silent Spring Essay Contest, offered in partnership with Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, was overwhelmingly positive. A total of 24 schools and 257 seventh grade students across the state participated. The deadline for submission was December 1, and the Reserve's Education Advisory Committee immediately got to work reading and scoring each essay. What quickly became apparent to the 17 reviewers was the widespread writing talent and environmental awareness among seventh grade students in Maine! So much so, that the Committee created an additional prize-winning category of "honorable mention" for students who did not win the top four prizes, but stood out from the larger pool of applicants with their exceptional essays. Following are the contest winners: