Recycled Art Contest
for
Wahoo,
How it Worked
1) Six weeks before the contest date of Nov 15, National Recycling Day, I outlined the concept on paper - a one-pager to give people an idea of what I was talking about. I felt it was important to keep it to one page because nobody wants to read more than that, and if it's too complicated to fit on one page it might be too difficult to pull off. he point of my effort was to raise recycling awareness in the community in a way that would be fun and rewarding, instead of just another responsibility. Here is the one-pager:
Recycled Art Contest
for
When:
Why: To celebrate National Recycling Day!
Where:
Sponsored by: Region
V (Susanne Nelson, phone)
Coordinator: Nancy Meyer, phone
Timeline:
Oct 20 – Nov 14: Entry forms, including rules, available at school office and Region V
Nov 14,
Nov 14,
Nov 15,
Nov 15,
Nov 15,
ALL ARTISTS will receive a participation prize because when people recycle, everybody wins!
Aluminum . . . case of canned pop and coupon for increased aluminum buyback rate from Region V
Telephone books . . . $10 store credit from Sunmart or $10 Phone card
Old books . . . 2 books
Old clothes . . . t-shirt from Gottschalk’s Athletics
Rubber tires . . . basketball from Walker Tire
Paper . . . 20 Rolls of Kick Butt toilet paper, stuffed animal
Newspapers . . . $15 cash
Plastics #1 & #2 . . . toys or 2-liter pop and cookies
Magazines . . . gifts from Lucille’s Gifts and Loerch’s Jeweler’s and stuffed animals
Steel cans . . . $10 store credit from Sunmart
Mixed . . . Army tool bag or Keep Nebraska Beautiful tote bag
2) I approached the local recycling org,
which in Wahoo is Region V Services. Region V takes in paper and
aluminum and sells it to vendors in Lincoln and
3) I presented the idea to the principal of the public elementary school. Again, I had a good relationship with her already due to providing the free classes last spring -- these classes covered state standards her teachers had to fulfill anyway, so it was a boon to her staff. However, I was well aware that she was not going to say yes to a lot of work, so I made it clear that I only needed her school for 24 hours, that we would do all our own setup and cleanup, that it would cost nothing, and that none of her staff would be asked to do anything more than communicate it to the students. Again, my one-pager came in handy. Once I got a "yes" from the principal (and, this is key, I stood in her office and watched her write it on the school calendar), I knew the contest was going to work.
4) I reviewed my Wahoo Recycling Opportunities list (which I had already researched and prepared the previous spring as a class handout) that shows what can be recycled in Wahoo and where. From that list I selected 12 categories of recyclables. Next I divided the grades in the elementary school into 3 groups: K-1, 2-3, 4-5. I built a table (first worksheet in excel file attached) that cross-referenced each grade group by category such that I would have 3 winners per recyclable material, one for each grade group. With 12 categories and 3 grade groups that made for 36 recyclable category/grade groups, or prize slots. Since I was determined to give a participation prize to promote the idea that everyone wins when people recycle, I noted that I would need to find sponsor(s) to contribute a large number of small items to serve as handouts to all participants. I was also set on the idea of handing out a stamped and pre-addressed thank-you note with each and every prize, telling the children to write it out and drop it in the mail to the sponsor who donated it. I felt this would be much more meaningful to the sponsor than a thank-you note from me. So this meant I had to find sponsors to donate 36 prizes, 36 thank-you notes and 100+ participation prizes.
5) Susanne and I wanted to
give the students about a month's notice to hear about the contest and
prepare their entries, so we decided to publicize it starting
mid-Oct. But publicizing the contest to the students was contingent upon
having a list of prizes to lure them to enter, so we had 2 weeks to round up
the sponsors.
Susanne contacted her aluminum and paper vendors,
her customers in town such as the newspaper, and her sister organizations in
other towns (ex. Region V of Nebraska City makes official army tool bags, so
she got them to donate two to the contest). She also approached her
boss and secured donations to cover four prize slots from Region V, as well as
a commitment for Xeroxing, setup and cleanup support.
I walked the downtown area and went cold-calling at likely sponsors, again using my one-pager to explain the contest, plus my empty "dance card" of prize slots. This was by far the hardest part of putting together the contest. I could tell you lots of funny and pathetic stories of the kinds of "welcomes" I received. But to save space, suffice it to say that I had to develop a tough hide and a strategy:
6) I found some prizes I
really wanted to give, but the vendor could not afford to donate. So I
decided to present the contest to the school PTO to request funds for these
prizes, as well as solicit any other volunteer help. Presenting at a PTO
meeting is not nearly as much fun as it may sound, but I did get $75 committed
to the project to buy stamps, prizes and whatever else came up, plus a
volunteer judge.
7) I approached the elementary art teacher about the contest and she was enthusiastic. She made a special effort to promote it by having kids make the art in her classroom, and agreed to serve as judge.
8) Next step was to get the kids as excited as we were. I told my two daughters to invite their friends over for a pizza, pop and poster-making party one afternoon. I fed them up and sent them down into the basement with markers and paints and some lists describing the contest logistics, categories and prizes. They did a GREAT job. The first graders actually did better work than the 5th graders because their posters were simple and direct with a single image and message. One girl drew a picture of a pop can and wrote "Drink Pop and Make Art". Another drew a big tire and wrote inside it "You can make stuff out of old tires and win a prize!" My daughters were only too glad to put the posters up throughout the school.
9) I xeroxed a version of my one-pager and put it in every teacher's mailbox labeled "please announce to your classroom immediately". This version had contest rules, timeline and how to enter details on it, as well as the prize bait. Here it is:
What: Recycled Art Contest for
When:
Why: To celebrate National Recycling Day!
Where:
ALL ARTISTS WILL RECEIVE A
PARTICIPATION PRIZE!!!
How to Enter:
1. Make art out of one of the following kinds of materials that are recyclable in Wahoo (nonrecyclable fasteners such as glue and tape are permitted):
Aluminum Phone books Paper Books/records/tapes Newspaper
Household/Clothing Corrugated Cardboard Plastics #1 & #2 only Rubber Tires
Magazines/Catalogs Steel Cans Mixed (any combination of the others)
2. Turn
in your artwork with an entry form on Friday, Nov 14 between
3. Come
to the Wahoo Elementary cafeteria on Saturday, Nov 15 at
*Three prizes will be awarded for each material category, one for each grade bracket (K-1, 2-3, 4-5).
MULTIPLE
Aluminum . . . case of canned pop and/or coupon for increased aluminum buyback rate from Region V
Telephone books . . . $10 store credit from Sunmart or Phone card
Old books/records/tapes . . . 2 books
Old clothes . . . t-shirt
Rubber tires . . . Basketball
Paper . . . 20 Rolls of Kick Butt toilet paper and a stuffed animal
Newspapers . . . $15 cash
Plastics #1 & #2 . . . toys or 2-liter pop and cookies and a stuffed animal
Magazines . . . Stuffed animals or gifts
Steel cans . . . $10 store credit from Sunmart
Mixed . . . Army tool bag or tote bag
Corrugated Cardboard . . . Art kits
10) I prepared an entry form
and Susanne had one of her assistants format it into a tri-fold showing contest
rules and process on one side, entry form on the other. She Xeroxed
these forms onto blue paper so they would stand out against the many other
fall-colored yellow, orange, brown and red items currently competing for people’s
attention at the school. We placed these, plus the Wahoo Recycling
Opportunities list, in the school office and art room. The rules and entry form are on the next
page.
I want to point out here that while it was an art contest, the key purpose was to promote awareness of recycling, so I made the very first contest rule "All materials used must be recyclable in Wahoo." The importance of this was reinforced on the entry form, which required the artist to list materials used and where they could be recycled locally. It also translated into one of the four judging criteria whereby points were awarded based on the percentage of the art that was recyclable. Let me tell you some kids still did not get it, and used things like #5 plastic.
1. All materials used in artwork MUST be able to be recycled locally (exceptions are glue and tape).
2. Contest
open to
3. Fully completed entry form must accompany all artwork.
4. Entries must be handmade by student(s).
5. Entries
must be delivered to Wahoo Elementary Cafeteria between
6. All materials used in artwork must be clean and safe (ex. no dirty containers or sharp edges).
7. More than one artist can be listed on a single entry; however, grade bracket will be that of the oldest child, and only one prize will be given if it wins.
8. All artists will receive a participation prize.
9. No glass or non-corrugated cardboard (paperboard, like that used in cereal boxes) and only plastics #1 and #2 can be used. “Steel cans” refers to soup, coffee or other food cans. Aluminum can be cans, pie plates or foil.
10. Judging will be based on the artwork’s creativity and the artist’s adherence to these contest rules.
Official
Entry Form
1. Artist Name(s): ____________________________
2. Grade: _________________
3. Circle one category your artwork represents (if no category specified, judges will choose):
Aluminum Phone books Paper Books/records/tapes Newspaper
Household/Clothing Plastics #1 & #2 only Rubber Tires
Magazines/Catalogs Corrugated Cardboard Steel Cans Mixed
4. Artwork Title: __________________________
5. List all materials used (you do not need to list glue or tape). Continue list on back if needed.
Material _______________ Where it can be recycled in Wahoo ____________________________________
Material _______________ Where it can be recycled in Wahoo ____________________________________
Material _______________ Where it can be recycled in Wahoo ____________________________________
Material _______________ Where it can be recycled in Wahoo ____________________________________
6. What do you want to happen to your artwork when the contest is over (circle one)?
Artist will pick up and recycle it Contest workers should recycle it
11) About 3 weeks before the
contest I held a judges' meeting. The seven judges agreed to meet in the local
library to discuss contest rules, judging process, tie-breaking strategies,
etc. I showed them a timeline to ground them on all the process, and secured
volunteers from the group to fill out the thank-you notes, make prize certificates
and print artist ID badges. Then I presented them with a "straw man"
judging form. We reviewed the rules, and tweaked the judging process. Then we
worked out "what to do ifs" such as what if no one entered a specific
category/grade group. The meeting went very well. Here’s a copy of the judges’
meeting agenda and final scorecard:
Wahoo Elementary Recycled
Art Contest
Judges Meeting
Judges:
Judge |
Organization |
Phone |
|
Susanne Nelson |
Region V Wahoo |
|
|
Joyce Koranda |
Region V Wahoo |
|
|
Judy Coday |
Wahoo Public Library |
|
|
Diane O’Brien |
Wahoo Elementary PTO |
|
|
Paula Pestal |
Barrister’s Garden |
|
|
Sue Klemme |
|
|
|
Janie York |
Janie Lynn Textiles |
|
Ringleader: Nancy Meyer
Meeting Agenda:
1. Review contest timeline:
Oct 20 – Nov 14: Entry forms, including rules, available at school office and Region V
Nov 14,
Nov 14,
Nov 15,
Nov 15,
Nov 15,
Nov 15,
1. Review judges’ duties:
2. Artist ID tags – Paula will make 300 badges that simply say “Artist” to be given with participation prizes when entries are submitted. Children will be told to wear them when they return the following day. Winner certificates – Diane will make 40 winner certificates for the prizes (36) and grand prizes (4). She will contact Susanne and Nancy for help in printing if necessary.
3. Review prizes for categories & make final assignments
4. Review judging forms (see below)
5. Determine what to do in case of ties – draw from hat!
6. Determine how to award grand prizes:
There are expected to be 4 grand prizes – two $100 and two $50 US savings bonds. They will be assigned as follows:
Highest Score of all individual entries in Category Grouping = $100 savings bond
There are two category groupings: Paper and Non-paper.
Paper categories include:
o Paper
o Newspaper
o Telephone books
o Books/Records/Tapes
o Magazines/catalogs
o Corrugated Cardboard
Non-paper categories include:
o Aluminum
o Steel Cans
o Tires
o Clothing/Household
o Plastics #1 and #2
o Mixed
In case of tie, draw from hat for first and second prize. If not, give $50 savings bond to second-highest score, or draw from hat in case of tie on second highest score.
“Due to the nature of the grand prizes (US Savings Bonds), only artwork made by an individual artist is eligible to win a grand prize. Artwork made by a team of two or more students is eligible for the other prize categories.”
7. What to do in case of no entries in a category/bracket – Nancy will determine whether this is the case while the judging is in process and confer with judges to remedy at that time.
Instructions to judges:
1. Fill out one scorecard per
contest entry.
2. Score each entry (taking
into account the artist’s grade bracket) on a scale of 1 – 5, where:
5 = outstanding 4 = well done 3 = good effort 2
= nice try 1 = oops
3. Total score will be tallied
for you.
1) Artist(s) Name: __________________________________________________________
2) Artwork Title:
___________________________________________________________
3) Grade Bracket: K-1 2-3 4-5
4) Category: Aluminum Phone books Paper Books/records/tapes
Newspaper Household/Clothing Plastics #1 & #2 only Rubber Tires
Magazines/Catalogs Corrugated Cardboard Steel Cans Mixed
____ % materials are recyclable locally (exceptions=glue & tape). 1=20%, 2=40% etc.
____ Entry appears to be handmade by student(s).
____ All materials are clean, safe and neat.
____ Entry shows creativity.
16) The day of the contest we had about 127 students turn in their artwork in the cafeteria before they went home for the day. In addition to the judges processing the entries, Region V had a couple workers and my husband graciously pitched in. That made for 11 volunteers that night, however I can say that it could have been done with 7-8 people just as well. My husband did a run to the local Pizza Hut, which had agreed to feed the volunteer crew for free. This was an important convenience to the judges, and turned out to be the only real way I thanked them for their support.
To
process each entry we reviewed the entry form with the student to make sure it
was filled out correctly. We made a
point of having the student use the Wahoo Recycling Opportunities list to
indicate where their materials could be recycled. We also took down the student’s phone number
in case their artwork did not get picked up later (this had been left off the
entry form). We gave the student their
entry prize, their artist ID badge to wear to the contest and a copy of the
Wahoo Recycling Opportunities list to take home. Some judges processed entries while others
taped the forms to the entries and carried them off to place them on a table.
17) Once all the entries were sorted onto specific tables by prize slot, we discovered that many prizes were to go un-awarded due to absence of entries. So we did a lot of re-assigning of entries to fill the prize slots if at all possible. This meant that many winners were simply by virtue of being the only entry in a prize slot. Also some reassignments were stretching it a bit. For example, one of the phone book winners was the only entry in its prize slot, despite the fact that the artwork contained a variety of recyclables, the least of which was a partial page from a phone book. Many entries from the mixed categories were re-assigned this way. But the judges as a group decided that it was more appropriate to find a way to award all the prizes than to do anything else we could think of with them, so that's what we did.
18) Each entry was scored by two judges. This allowed for balance in judging and kept the judges from having to score each and every one of the over 120 entries (very time-consuming). We tallied the scores for all entries and sorted the highest scores to the top of each prize slot pile. Then we counted up the ties, and compared that to the number of un-entered category/grade groups (aka prize slots). The numbers were the same! So whereas before the contest we thought we'd have to break a tie, it turned out we had enough prizes to cover all winners, even where ties occurred. This was a coincidence; probably we would have come up with a second place winner system of some kind if it had not happened.
One very wonderful thing that had happened for the
contest was that Susanne's aluminum vendor had really gotten excited about the
contest to the point that he committed a $100 and a $50 savings bond and
suggested we give them as grand prizes. Then he challenged her paper
vendor to match his contribution, and they did!! So we had four grand
prizes to award. I separated the 12 categories of recyclables into two
category groups: paper based and non-paper
based. There were six paper-based
categories: office paper, phone books,
hardback and paperback books, cardboard, newspaper and magazines and catalogs. All other recyclables such as metals, rubber
and mixed went into the non-paper based category group. We selected the two highest scores among all
the winners in each category group, and assigned those as first and second
prize. Where there was a tie, the judges
reviewed the entries and voted. So the
aluminum vendor’s $100 and $50 savings bonds went to the first and second place
grand prizewinners in the non-paper category, respectively. Likewise, the paper vendor’s 100 and $50
savings bonds went to the first and second place grand prizewinners in the paper
category, respectively.
19) The next day at
Opening Remarks
for Awards Ceremony:
Welcome everyone to the First Annual Wahoo Elementary Recycled Art Contest!
Thanks everyone involved:
It’s been a fun contest -- beautiful & creative artwork -- all in support of recycling in Wahoo
Purpose of Contest was to celebrate November 15, National Recycling Day, with a fun way to promote recycling awareness in our community. To that end I want to emphasize that all artists received a participation prize because when people recycle, everybody wins. By the way, there are quite a few participation prizes left, so before you leave make sure you get one.
With that in mind, explain a little about the judging – based on:
That means that this spreadsheet is an invaluable tool for determining what to use in your artwork – EVERYONE PLEASE TAKE ONE HOME TODAY.
A word about the prizes; they consist of:
heads up parents, this is important! All the child has to do is write the thank you note and drop it in the mail. We’d really like to get 100% participation on this because it is the only way our generous sponsors will be thanked for all their great contributions.
Here’s how we’re going to announce the prizes:
Finally, I want to emphasize that if you want your artwork back, PLEASE take it home today. For anything left over that the artist indicated he/she wanted back, please see Ms. Klemme.
The
newspaper was there to cover the story, so at the end of the contest I asked
all winners to return to the stage for a picture. Then I reminded the artists
to take home their artwork if they did not want Region V to recycle it for
them.
Several
artists were not present to receive their prize, so we moved the prizes to the
school office and decided to call them out of class on Monday to get them. This group included the four grand prizewinners!
I called each one of them at home over the weekend to make sure the parents
knew that there would be a
20) The last step in the contest was for me to send out
thank-you notes to the sponsors who did not give specific prizes. These
included the school, the Pizza Hut and the banks (who gave pens, pencils and
coloring books for participation prizes).
There were no real obstacles in the process other than the
awkwardness of having to ask for sponsorship at the vendors and the PTO. I
overcame this with the strategy I described above, and a little pluck.
There are a number of things I would do differently next time, based on the experience at our school. These are listed below.
Things we learned/might do
differently:
·
Very few kids
bring art projects after school, but since school is okay with sending kids
down to the cafeteria with their art during the day, check-in can occur during
school day.
·
Best to label
tables such as K-1 Plastics and place art projects accordingly during check-in
vs. reorganize later.
·
Only about 127
kids participated in the first year – need to encourage more participation
since we won’t have Ms. Klemme make projects in class next year. She was
surprised how few of her students entered the art projects made in class.
·
No need to send
home entry forms until the day before the contest
date; they just get lost in backpacks.
·
Many, many
category-grade combinations went un-entered; could we have a sign-up sheet so
kids can see that some categories aren’t being entered?
·
Need some way to
predict # of entries so we can better predict # of participation prizes needed.
We ended up with many extras.
·
Need some way to
make sure the Wahoo Recycling Opportunities list gets
home with every contest attendee.
·
Award ceremony
should start ½ hour after doors open to give people time to get settled.
·
Need the award
ceremony better promoted to parents and the public to obtain better attendance.
·
Award ceremony
took about 45 minutes and everybody leaves afterward, so need to schedule less
time for that. Had originally scheduled
·
Need to clarify
to everyone WHEN art is available for pickup and where.
·
Perhaps need to
make contest ceremony on same day as contest entries? Saturday contest ceremony
and art display was not as well attended as we’d hoped.
·
Need a judging
category to separate creativity from artistic merit, i.e. execution vs.
concept?
·
Need a better
system for taking off points for non-recyclables, such as a checker to see that
this is done consistently and is well understood.
·
Need to better
clarify paperboard vs. corrugated cardboard. People still don’t get it. Some
entries in cardboard and mixed categories lost points as a result.
·
Need tags to show
winners for public display, like at county fair.
·
Eliminate
categories such as books that probably won’t get entered, or combine these
categories into one such as “Mixed and Other”. Books, phone books and rubber
were not popular and are not likely to be popular. Newspapers and steel cans
were not popular either, but could be if kids were more aware of winning
strategies (i.e. enter as many categories as you want, especially the unpopular
ones).
·
May need to
rename “steel cans” to just canned food containers and/or give examples such as
soup cans or coffee cans. The term may have put off entrants.
·
Ask for more
thank-you notes than you estimate you will need. I ended up buying extras.
·
Judges
recommended drawing from hat to break ties, but during the judging decided to
review the ties and vote on winners. I think this was more appropriate and
should be agreed on up front to save time.