STAMFORD, Conn. (Jan. 23, 2018) – Keep America Beautiful, the nation’s iconic community improvement nonprofit organization, announced the national Grand Prize Winners of its “How Will You … End Littering?” Video Contest, which was open to high school students from grades 9-12.
- The 9th-10th grade category winner was Juanise Foster, a 9th grade student at Kenwood Academy High School in Chicago, Illinois, with her submission entitled, “A Bigger Problem.”
- The 11th-12th grade category winner was Eliza Copilevitz, an 11th grade student at Clayton High School in St. Louis, Missouri, for her submission entitled, “Don’t Litter – It’s Our Home.”
The winners of the contest, which is sponsored by Keep America Beautiful and the Wrigley Company Foundation, were recently announced at Keep America Beautiful’s 2018 National Conference in Dallas, Texas.
The “How Will You … End Littering?” Video Contest, which ran from Aug. 23 through Oct. 13, 2017, challenged high school students to address the issue of litter and littering behavior in America by creating a 30- to 60-second public service message video that conveys how littering is costly, harmful to the environment and economy, illegal, and just downright wrong.
The Grand Prize Winners received an all-expenses paid trip for two to the 2018 Keep America Beautiful National Conference in Dallas, Texas. The winning videos are being showcased in front of more than 400 attendees today at Keep America Beautiful’s National Awards ceremony. In addition, each winner received a GoPro Hero5 Black video camera.
“Litter is costly to clean up, impacts our quality of life and economic development, and eventually ends up as marine debris, polluting our waterways and oceans,” said Keep America Beautiful Vice President/Litter and Affiliate Relations Cecile Carson. “The ‘How Will You … End Littering?’ Video Contest sheds a light on these issues with those who will have the greatest future impact – our next generation of community and environmental stewards. Our contest participants are helping to motivate their peers and others to do their part to end littering in America.”
The 9th-10th grade category runner-up was Carter Rutledge, a 10th grade student at Daniel Academy in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, with his submission entitled, “Perspective.”
The 11th-12th grade category runner-up was Nathan Katz, a 12th grade student at Weston High School in Weston, Connecticut, for his submission entitled, “Westport CT.”
The runners-up in each grade category received a GoPro Hero Session video camera. The first 20 eligible entrants in each grade category received a $25 Best Buy Gift Card.
For more than six decades, Keep America Beautiful has served as our country’s nonprofit steward of litter prevention. Keep America Beautiful’s 1971 public service campaign – “People start pollution. People can stop it.” – inspired a generation of Americans to change their behavior and had a dramatic impact on reducing the amount of visible roadside litter in our country. Keep America Beautiful’s landmark litter research and other resources, focus on the composition of litter and the attendant costs of littering. And Keep America Beautiful’s Litter Index and Community Appearance Index provide step-by-step methods of assessing current litter conditions and other indicators, which are used in thousands of communities and by municipalities nationwide.
The videos were scored by a panel of judges comprised of representatives from and associated with Keep America Beautiful, the Foodservice Packaging Institute and the Wrigley Company Foundation based on the following criteria:
- 25 percent engaging storytelling around an effort to end littering;
- 25 percent adherence to the brief;
- 25 percent originality; and
- 25 percent production quality.
GOPRO, HERO, SESSION, the GOPRO logo, and the GoPro Be a Hero logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of GoPro, Inc. BEST BUY, the BEST BUY logo, the tag design, MY BEST BUY, and BESTBUY.COM are trademarks of Best Buy and its affiliated companies. This Contest is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with GoPro, Best Buy or their respective companies, affiliates and owners.
About Keep America Beautiful
Keep America Beautiful, the nation’s iconic community improvement nonprofit organization, inspires and educates people to take action every day to improve and beautify their community environment. Celebrating its 65th Anniversary in 2018, Keep America Beautiful strives to End Littering, Improve Recycling and Beautify America’s Communities. We believe everyone has a right to live in a community that is clean, green and beautiful, and shares a responsibility to contribute to that vision.
Behavior change – steeped in education, research and behavioral science – is the cornerstone of Keep America Beautiful. We empower generations of community and environmental stewards with volunteer programs, hands-on experiences, educational curricula, practical advice and other resources. The organization is driven by the work and passion of more than 600 Keep America Beautiful affiliates, millions of volunteers, and the collaborative support of corporate partners, social and civic service organizations, academia, municipalities, elected officials, and individuals. Join us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. Donate and take action at kab.org.
About the Wrigley Company Foundation
The mission of the Wrigley Company Foundation is to help improve the health of people and our planet through sustainable initiatives, including those focused on the environment, particularly litter prevention, oral care, as well as local needs that ensure a healthy community. Since its founding in 1987, the Wrigley Company Foundation has donated more than $70 million USD to charitable organizations improving lives around the world. For more information, visit www.wrigley.com and www.mars.com.
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