Well, good evening everybody. Welcome to me as a commissioner. And I think some of all of us, the favorite night of the year, which is when we recognize the winners of the county's 12th annual saving my lateral environmental art contest. Chair Chesson is not able to make it. So I'm standing in for him as vice chair. I'm Ken Cornell and you're going to meet all of us tonight. So the contest tonight encourages students to submit artwork, reflecting their interest in the local environment and addressing one of the following topics. Water conservation, stormwater pollution prevention, natural habitat protection, wilderness and wildlife protection, proper disposal of toxic waste or climate-related issues. Just to put tonight in perspective, we received a total of 639 submissions from 29 Elatro County Schools this year. This is the largest number of schools we have had participating in the history of this contest. And it includes public, private charter schools, and even home schools. The winners sitting before us today represent 41 that were selected out of the 639 participants. So, big congratulations to each and every one of you. We have another amazing lineup of original artwork representing our local Alastair County environment. And as you have seen in the hallway just outside the chambers here, thank you all for taking the time to be here and to share in tonight's accomplishments. I'm going to turn it over to our EPD director and then we're're gonna have Commissioner Wheeler present the award and we're gonna come down and take a bunch of pictures. And we did our public comment that we're supposed to do tonight early, so all we're doing is celebrating Y'all. So with that, Steve, you have more. All right, thank you Commissioner Cornell, commissioners. Welcome everyone, this is Earth Day. And in an effort to celebrate Earth Day, we tried to have this event with our commissioners around Earth Day. And we got lucky this year. We're actually doing it on Earth Day. So I think it's a great opportunity for all of you. And for all of us, this is as Commissioner Cornell said, this is really special for us. As Environmental Protection Department staff, we get the honor of trying to judge the art. But we also get the honor of seeing the art. We put it up on our walls in our office for over a month. And it really, it's our favorite time of the year to be in the office. And I think a lot of the staff are in the office more enjoying the artwork. And so what we do is we judge the artwork and we select the first, second, and third place artists for each year. And then what we also do is we select calendar winners and every year we put those that artwork into a calendar. So it's our 12th year doing it. And that is an interesting sound. But for us, this truly is our favorite time of the year to have you all here. And I hope you enjoy the evening. I hope you have a chance to see the artwork. We do have some first for this year. One of those first is we are going to have a first, second and third placed artist for 10th, 11th and 12th grade. Every year in the past, we've grouped the high school artwork together into one category and selected one first place, second place, and third place winner. This year we had so much high school applicants that we have 10th grade, 11th grade, and 12th grade as well. So every grade now gets to have a first, second, and third place winner. Another first for this year is we are going to show all of the remaining artwork. So if all those that didn't get selected tonight, all of that artwork over 600 pieces of art are going to be on display at the Lenea-Caew. Montessori School, which is right down the street at 636 North East First Street. So it's literally down the street here. And we're going to be displaying that artwork on Thursday night from 5 to 7, Friday night from 5 to 7, and Saturday all day from 9, 10 to 5. So if you have, if you know some of your students and friends and maybe some of your children who didn't get selected tonight but had submitted artwork, please join us and we'll have staff there and you can chat with us at that event as well. So that's the first time we've been able to find a location to display all of the artwork. So please join us at that event later this week. So with that, I will turn it over to Commissioner Wheeler. Thank you so much. What a great way to celebrate Earth Day. I got to say, excuse me, I taught art at Westwood Middle School for about 22 years. And I was very much involved in water conservation efforts when we started this program. So it's very exciting for me to get to see the very beginnings of this as an art teacher and see the endings of this as a commissioner who can celebrate with you because I know how important it is to have art in the community. We've got amazing artists here who are helping us to get the message out that our environment's important. And I'm just thrilled to be able to read these names and to work in a place where we have an art gallery out in our hallway. We get to see every single day. And I'm sorry you all don't have it in your homes, but I hope you took pictures of those things, because now they belong to us, thank you very much. And we are certainly enjoying every single picture that is hanging in that hallway. And I'm sorry that we can't hang them all, but the place that they're talking about is a new school location, but it used to be the spring arts school. It was school. Well, it's where they had the spring arts festival activities going from. So that's where it is down at the end of this road. But not to wait any longer, we are going to be celebrating each grade level one at a time, and we're going to with our kindergartners. Now sometimes the kindergartners are a little shy about coming up by themselves. So if mom or dad or a sister want to come or a teacher, if your teachers are here, how many teachers are here today? This raised your hand. Oh good. I am going to celebrate you all a little bit later. But I just want to make sure that we do have you here in our midst for certain. All right. Now, what we're going to do is to ask you, we're going to call your name, we're going to show your artwork up here for everybody to see. And then when you come up here, we're going to give you a certificate. Kindergarteners, you're going to show everybody how it's done, right? right? Okay. So you're gonna come up here, you'll take your certificate and we're gonna all shake hands with you, and then when all three of our winners come up, we'll take a big picture, okay? Got it? All right, so we're going to start with our kindergarteners. And I have here as Cameron Wright, who is third place kindergarten. Is Cameron here? Where? Come on! Here at the platter. Everybody see it over there? Okay. Very congratulations. All right. And Cameron, your artwork is bright up on the wall. Did you? All right. Second place, kindergarten is Liam Young. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Second place, kindergarten is Liam Young. Liam. Applause. Very nice. And yours is, did we get them up there? There is. There is. And the calendar. Oh, so is it going to be in your calendar? You're going to be published as a kindergarten or your published work. Hadley Bowl. Hadley is Hadley here. Not here. All right. Well, certainly please come. first place. Alright, now we get a picture everybody. Okay. Okay. I'm going to sit here. I'm going to sit here. I'm going to sit are here. I'm so glad you are here. I'm so glad you are here. I'm so glad you are here. I'm so glad you are here. I'm so glad you are here. I'm so glad you are here. I'm so glad you are here. I'm so glad you are here. I'm so glad you are here. I'm so glad you are here. Well, I did a nice job on those this year. All right, and then we have a first grade category, second place, Amelia Clemens. Where are you? Is Amelia here? All right. We will save that for her. And first grade, category first place is Maeve Martin. I'm going to give you a hand. It's not everybody. You can go there to show. I can make your hair a little bit thicker. You can see it rather than a little bit. All right. Now we've got the third graders. No, second graders, I beg your pardon. I'm going too fast here. Kate Logan, she's got third place, second grade categories. And second grade category, second place is Claire Alexander. There you go. Okay, first place and calendar sex selection, Bligh Kaminsky. I like it. I like it. I like it. All right. There you go. All right. We can do this. That's OK. Kagan McMullen. Is it Kagan or Kagan? APPLAUSE And third grade category, second place is Braxton Brown. Are you all seeing all this work? They get moved? Yeah, they're good. They can see it too. Braxton's not here. are you the teacher for press? Thank you. All right, and third grade category first, placed and calendar, Victoria Schoo. under Victoria Schoo. Thank you. All right. Fourth graders. Carolyn Snyder, calendar selection. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Fourth graders. Carolyn Snyder, calendar selection. Is it Carolyn or Carlin? Carolyn, where are you? She's going to tell me. Is it Carlin? It is Carlin. Thank you. I got you, girl. Well, all right, Abigail through. Fourth grade category second place. Skyler, Wiles, Dostosio. Skyler. Congratulations. And then this is our last win. Okay, fourth grade category, first place, Coral Bitter. This it a big round of applause. I'm going to give it a big round of applause. I'm going to give it a big round of applause. I'm going to give it a big round of applause. I'm going to give it a big round of applause. I'm going to give it a big round of applause. I'm going to give it a big round of applause. I'm going to give it a big round of applause. I'm going to give it a big round of applause. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Takes a village. Fifth. Thank you. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Takes a village. Fifth graders. Third place, Dan Yella-Dodds. It is a little tricky to get around. Can, question that says. All right, fifth grade category, second place in calendar selection. Diana Salimova. Here. I see. I see not. All right. We will make sure she gets it. And then fifth grade category, first place in calendar selection, Shilobronson. Now that's going to look right on the calendar, y'all. I'm going to get a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a Now that's going to look right on the calendar y'all. She can't see it. Oh no, okay schoolers. My favorite. Allie Mitchell, third place. All right. Allie here. All right. Sophia Williams, second place. All right. Where are you in school, Sophia? Oh, call. That's a good one too. Here, let me take your hand. And your motion. All of these people here in the presidential group. Okay, six grade, first place in calendar, pepperedor. Applause Congratulations, where are you? We're on the A and Lawsland. Okay, decide it for the episode they can sit here atian? Vivienne? Ann third place. Vivian? It's a nice panther. All right, second place, seventh grade category, Anseli Jet. Anseli here. No. And first place, Hannah Bond. Congratulations, Hannah. First President of the county. Is that all of a sudden? There's all of a sudden, Okay. Is there a big one? I'm really happy. Thank you. Thank you. Eight graders. Amaya Ramirez-Kruger, third place. That was eight graders who are going to be headed to high school next year, right? Congratulations. Where are you at school? Okay. Okay. I graduate. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. And second place, eighth grade category, Michaela Bryan. We're even school. First, go to the first page. Okay. 8th grade category first place in calendar, Geneva Seraphine. Okay. Did she go to your school? Maybe we can get you to take it to her maybe. All right. All right. Okay. All right. Okay. Okay. Okay. Good luck. Thanks, your girls. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right, now we have ninth graders. And the work that these, I'm just really blown away by the quality of the work. I hope you all had some time to really look carefully at the artwork that's coming out of our kids. And I'm really excited that they were able to put the grades separate this year. Kira Yurya-Cieva. here. Did Kira get here? I practiced her name. I was hoping she'd get here so I could be proud. All right, and second place we have Sha Ting Zeng. Thank you. Congratulations. All right. Ninth grade category, first place in calendar, Sammy Bruner. Congratulations. Oh, call. You're all called. Where are you? You're at East Side? Yes. East Side. East Side. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You're all called where you are. You're at East Side. East Side High School. Right. Great job. Oh, I can stand on it. Okay. Okay. Thank you, girls. Okay, 10th graders, Katie Burkloo, 3rd place. Katie here. Not here, not here. And 2nd place we have Jessica Blue. Jessica, are you here? And we got her up there. That's so beautiful. Congratulations, Jessica. Where are you in school? At the right, Sherry School. Okay. All right, and then 10th grade category first place, Samson Schulman. All right, we'll make sure that these get to the right place. Yes? OK, 11th grade. I feel like this is going too fast. Alright, 11th grade category third place in calendar selection and Jeleka Francisco Jimenez. All right. Now we have a 11th grade category, third place, Yaba, Alamina. Are you here? Maybe you didn't know how I pronounced your name, it was you. But anyway, this is another East Side student that will be going back with their teacher. And 11th grade category, 2nd place is Evelyn Manley. East Side was in the House. Okay, 11th grade category, first place in calendar selection, Harper Bullock. We are in school, Arthur. Gainesville High School. Thank you. All right, 12th grade. Cecilia Duda, third place. I really don't know how you all selected these. I'm telling you, it seems to me it would have been a tie across the board. I'm gonna steal the mic because we have a special award for Cecilia, dedication to the arts award because she has won the most amount of times. Do you remember how many times you've won? Six. Six times. So she got a special award. Okay. 12th grade category. in calendar selection, Jaden Elfonso. Thank you. Congratulations, Jim. Where are you at school? First question to Well represented today. Sena. Sena at a moddy. Sena has been doing this too now. You said, and Fort cutscene come up here and get this. Four years in a row. I'm trying to put all of these folks to say I know who you are. All right, let's stay over here. Yeah, I'm going to stay over here. There. It's a nice looking bunch. Where you come know what you're going to do next year. What are you going to do next year? You're seniors this year, right? Where are you at East Side? All right. Where are you going to? What are you doing? I'm planning to attend college at Washington University in St. Louis, studying architecture. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. How much did you find? I'm going to Santa Fe College to get my AA and then Southern University in Tennessee to pursue a Bachelor's in Fine Arts. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you. I'm going to University of Florida for civil engineering. These kids give me goose bumps. It's really exciting to watch kids grow in the county under the loving care of this community. And so I really appreciate you parents making sure that these kids get the art and that we are funding the arts because anybody will tell you that the arts is the best way to make it through middle school. I can tell you that. But it's also a way to prepare kids like this for a profession that they may not have ever thought of. They're using their creative skills to get out into the world to do important work. And I'm very proud of our public school system here. And also our private schools that are now participating right alongside all of us with us. We're seeing schools participate that we haven't seen before come and work with us here. And so that's been very exciting too. Are teachers, would you come join us up here? Thank you. I'm just gonna get a picture. Thank you. Okay, great, great. Okay, all right, and then don't go away because our commissioners want to say something too, but I want to get a picture of the art teacher. We've not done that before. You all deserve to be waiting. I'm not going to do it now. Art teacher, but you're doing it. Of course. We've got a principle here. A principle? Who's our principle? Who's the principle in the room? Who's our principal? Who's the principal in the room? Okay, would you all just tell everybody who you are and what school you're from very quickly? Just very quickly. If you want to. On Kaji Janish, you can help me with your campus. I'm going to walk out from first picture at that end. And move in how we're left out.. I'm Blue and Howard Leskowski and I'm an East Side House. I'm just saying, if you know the area of corporate, come to our central, I can live on our studio. So, I'm fine. Becky Lance or O'Paul. I've got a house, play with the elephant, right? So, I'm not a star. APPLAUSE Yeah. There you go. Yeah, there you go. I'll be right here. I'll be right here. I'll be right here. I'll be right here. I'll be right here. I'll be right here. I'll be right here. I'll be right here. I'll be right here. I'll be right here. I just wanted to say a few words. I was, we don't all have the same talents and I've always, always been just a little bit jealous of anyone that could take a pencil and turn it into something that is magical. I'm an engineer, so I was very happy to hear that one of the seniors was going into engineering because I do believe that there is art in that as well, but I'm an environmental engineer, so today means a lot to me. When I first went into environmental engineering, I thought it meant that I would be outside a lot and interacting with nature. But unfortunately, it meant that I sit at a desk a lot. But I get to enjoy these wonderful things like today. So thank you all so much and thanks to all of you parents for supporting your kids and doing something so amazing. Hi you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, everyone. I'm Anna Priszi-Ida. I just want to echo the thanks to the parents and to the teachers and to the administrators for really focusing on the arts and integrating it into everything that they do. It's such an important part of an educational journey and so often it's sort of the underdog in the educational journey. So we're excited to be able to celebrate it today on Earth Day. And a big, big thank you to the students who created this beautiful work for celebrating our Earth and celebrating what's the best about our county. So I get the opportunity to hope in the meeting. I get the opportunity to wrap up the meeting. What I want to say is there's over 27,000 students in Outsborough County. There were over 641 submissions, 641. These are the best 41 of those submissions. And when I look at each one of them, there's a story there. And when I think about the future of Outsborough County, it gives me great honor in saying that we are in really, really good hands because our kids are obviously amazing and the stories that they write through their art is amazing. And now you guys know why this is a favorite night of the County Commission meeting. So let's give you all one more round of applause and thank you. Okay, the meeting is adjourned.