Students support beautification with artwork

by Ed Moreth

The Plains Beautification Committee isn't just helping to clean up the town, they took time out last week to pick the most beautiful posters from school children about the cleanup.

The committee received more than 50 posters from Plains Elementary School students and selected the top entries for kindergarten, second and third, and fourth and fifth grade. The winner in each category won a $25 Plains business gift certificate and runners up received a $15 certificate. The kindergarten winner was Maggie Goodwin, followed by runner up Malia Hart. The second and third grade winner was Bransen Fryxell of the third grade. The runner up was Auston Yoder, also of the third grade. First place at the fourth and fifth grade level was Daniel Barber of the fifth grade. The runner up was fifth-grader Ryker Anderson.

It took the group, comprised of Deb Warren, Dede Johnson, Scott Johnson, Lana Dicken, Anita Marsh, and Garrett Boon, about an hour to sift through the artwork. There were no first grade, junior high or high school entries, although the competition was open to all grades.

The Plains Beautification Committee was formed last year and has held two cleanup days since its start, but this was the first time they had held a poster contest. Dicken said she got the idea after recently seeing Thompson Falls student posters of its beautification event in the county courthouse. "It caught my attention and seemed like a fantastic way to get the word out about cleanup day, so our committee voted on it and agreed that it was a good use of our time and resources, so the plan is to do yearly partnership with the school," said Dicken, who also serves as a Plains town councilwoman.

The committee judges gave the posters a score of one to three with the lower number a better score and rated the artwork on a clear date of the cleanup,creativity, neatness, and town pride. "I think some of them knew the assignment and others were just creative on their own," said Marsh. The posters were 8 1/2 x 11 or 12 x 18 and varied in content and originality with lawn mowers, weed eaters, trash, woods, mountains, rabbits, a burning house, and even one called the "Trashinator" that showed a spaceship beaming up trash - along with a cow - from the Earth, by Connor Sherwood of the fourth grade.

A poster by Jude Meaden showed colorful mushrooms, trees, a river going through town, a cleanup person and a rainbow and it came down to one of three finalists, but was not selected. "I like it. It looks like it's raining Skittles," said Scott Johnson.

There were some really creative ones," said Dicken. "If I don't clean the forist the animals will eat it and the animals will die and hav of the people will not be happy. People will be sad that animals died. They will be so sad animols," wrote Zaylin Sheehan on her poster. Committee members will be posting the kids' artwork at City Hall and businesses around town.

The spring Beautification Day is scheduled for Saturday, May 18. Committee members and volunteers will meet in the open area across from the fire hall at 9 a.m. to hand out assignments and go over the plan of the day. That will also be the same site for the compiled debris, tires and trash. Johnson and Boon will be doing a reconnaissance of those asking for help to determine what tools are needed, the estimated time needed for the task, and the number of people needed for the job.

Thirteen people had signed up to get help as of last Wednesday, but only nine people have signed up to volunteer to help. "In order for this day to be successful, we need volunteers," said Scott Johnson. In addition, some of the volunteers said they could only be available in the morning while some said they could only work the afternoon. Dicken said one youth group signed up, but she didn't know how many were in the group.

"With the amount of volunteers that we currently have, we would have to drastically reduce the amount of work requested by the residents and those volunteers will have to do the lion's share of the work," he added. Warren had reached out to youth groups for volunteers, but hasn't received any replies. "We need young backs for this," said Warren.

Boon, Warren and Dicken went to the Plains-Paradise Senior Citizens Center to let them know that volunteers will be installing house numbers for those that need them. At the February town council meeting, it was revealed that of the 587 homes in town, 129 had no house number and that 28 had numbers, but were not readily visible. Mayor Joel Banham said at last week's council meeting that the town purchased 200 house numbers and that volunteers from the Plains Ambulance Service, the Town of Plains Fire Department and the Plains-Paradise Rural Fire District will help people put them up.

Studs Home and Building donated work gloves and loaned the committee weed eaters and an electric chainsaw. The Clark Fork Valley Hospital donated bottled water.