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For Immediate Release
May 27, 2020

Board of Water Supply Announces Winners of Water Conservation Poster and Poetry Contest

Forty-two school children honored for place-winning and honorable mention entries

HONOLULU – The Board of Water Supply (BWS) is pleased to announce the winners of its 2020 Water Conservation Week Poster and Poetry Contests. Hundreds of students from dozens of schools on Oahu participated in this year’s contest and a panel of judges selected these works of art as the best.

sophia lafferty 1st place poster 2020“The BWS’s Water Conservation Week contests inspire our school children to embrace the important and ongoing lesson that we all must work together to preserve and protect our water supply for now and for the future,” said BWS Chair Bryan Andaya. “Mahalo to all the schools, teachers, and students who continue to support this program.”

The BWS received more than 1,000 posters and 600 poems in the 42nd annual poster and 12th annual poetry contests.  Winners were selected based on the accuracy of information, originality, creativity, and artistic or poetic ability, based on the student’s age, to convey this year’s contest theme, “Creating a Sustainable Water Future.” 

“We appreciate the time and effort each student put into creating these remarkable posters and poems,” said BWS Manager and Chief Engineer Ernest Lau. “The entries reflect a profound understanding of and appreciation for our precious water resources and resulted in impressive artistic expressions of ways we each can conserve it for generations to come.”

Top honors were awarded to 24 Oahu students in different categories from kindergarten to 12th grade, along with 18 honorable mentions. The contests invited Oahu school students in kindergarten through grade 6 to share their thoughts on the important value of water through poster art, and students in grades 7-12 to use poetry to express their views on the same subject. The winning artwork and poetry will be available online at www.boardofwatersupply.com/contestwinners.

To help protect students, teachers, family members and BWS staff from the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19), the annual Poster and Poetry Contest Awards Ceremony was canceled. Winning students and their entries will instead be recognized online at the BWS’s website, www.boardofwatersupply.com, and our social media sites, www.facebook.com/BWSHonolulu and www.twitter.com/BWSHonolulu. They will also be featured in our 2021 Water Conservation Calendar, which will be available to the public at the end of this year.

This year’s poster contest was judged by Tory Laitila, Curator of Textiles and Fashion for the Honolulu Museum of Art; Brian Ito, Early reading Educational Specialist for the Hawaii State Department of Education; and BWS Civil Engineer Christopher Sugimoto. The poetry contest was judged by BWS Information Specialist Keoni Mattos and UH West Oahu student and City & County of Honolulu Pookela Student Intern Jamna Usman. 

This year’s contests were made possible through the support of Platinum Sponsors Sodexo, the Friends of Halawa Xeriscape Garden, Hawaiian Financial Federal Credit Union, Aloha Pacific Federal Credit Union, and Times Supermarket; Gold Sponsors Alexander & Baldwin Foundation and Hawaii Energy; and Silver Sponsor Pasha Hawaii.

About the Board of Water Supply

The Board of Water Supply (BWS), a semi-autonomous agency of the City and County of Honolulu, manages Oahu’s municipal water resources and distribution system.  As the largest water utility in the State, the BWS serves approximately one million customers on Oahu.  The BWS embraces its mission of “Water for Life – Ka Wai Ola” – to provide a safe, dependable, and affordable water supply, now and into the future.  Uwē  ka lani, ola ka honua – “When the heavens weep, the earth lives.”  For more information, visit www.boardofwatersupply.com, follow @BWSHonolulu or like the BWS’s Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/BWSHonolulu.

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An image is attached for your consideration and use and is courtesy of the Board of Water Supply.


Contact:

Kathleen Elliott-Pahinui
Information Officer
Honolulu Board of Water Supply
Phone: (808) 748-5319