By Nathanael Rodriguez | For The Signal
This year’s Earth Arbor Day Festival at Central Park treated the community to pony rides through green grass, newly planted trees and plenty of decorated trash cans with the eighth annual cArt Art competition.
For the “cArt aRt” competition, contestants are provided a trash cart by the city to decorate in whatever way they choose and display at the festival. The designs and decorations ranged from Chewbacca and Lego figures to dessert treats. CArt aRt is designed to encourage creativity while raising awareness about recycling in the community, according to organizers.
“It has become a staple of the festival since we kicked it off in 2010,” said Laura Jardine, project technician for the city’s Environmental Services Division. “Everyone looks forward to it.”
There were four categories that judges and attendees voted on: Most Creative, Best Local Flair, Best Green Theme and Fan Favorite. The winner of the $200 grand prize was a community center organization known as iTeens, which decorated a cart as an ice cream cone.
The $100 prizes went out to “Avenge the Earth,” an “Avengers”-themed cart made by a local family; “Spring Is in the Air,” which was also made by a local family; and “Chains of Recycling” created by a local youth — “a young child that was very interested in trash and recycling and was really excited to participate,” said Jardine.
“We really hope that people will get more interested and want to enter next year,” Jardine said.
