Riverview City Councilman James Trombley (left) honors student winners of poster contest on April 18 at the Riverview City Council meeting. The contest posters promoted an electronic recycling event for Downriver area communities this weekend at the Kennedy Recreation Center in Trenton. MacKenzie Keller (second from left) received second-place honors and Diarta Kurteshi received the blue ribbon. Both girls are fifth-graders at Anderson Elementary School in Trenton.
By SUE SUCHYTA
Sunday Times Newspapers
RIVERVIEW – City officials here recently honored Downriver elementary and middle school students who were drawn to recycling in more ways than one.
The Riverview Land Preserve sponsored a poster design contest to promote a free electronic recycling event at the Kennedy Recreation Center.
Students from Seitz Middle School in Riverview and Jesse L. Anderson Elementary School in Trenton provided contest entries. First- and second-place winners were chosen at the grade- and middle-school levels.
Seventh-graders Maggie Wood and Emily Douglas took first and second place, respectively, at Seitz.
The girls are members of the school’s environmental group ECO HOPE. Debra Meeks, a seventh-grade social studies and eighth-grade Spanish language teacher, is the club’s faculty sponsor.
Seitz faculty picked its two winning entries, which then were forwarded to John Menna, assistant director and marketing manager for the Riverview Land Preserve, for electronic scanning and reproduction.
John Menna, assistant director and marketing manager for the Riverview Land Preserve, recognized the Riverview winners at the April 18 City Council meeting.
Diarta Kurteshi and MacKenzie Keller, fifth-grade students at Anderson, finished first and second, respectively.
They received gift cards from a local electronic appliance store.
Diarta’s winning poster encouraged electronic recycling to save the Earth. MacKenzie used humor, employing an animated appliance saying, “I’m too old for this.”
MacKenzie’s father, Rob Keller, said he will begin recycling old electronics properly now that his daughter has showcased the practice in a winning poster, saying that he no longer will toss such items into the regular trash.
Her mother, Jennifer Keller, added that their daughter is “very creative.”
“She does a lot of different crafty things,” Jennifer Keller said. “Nothing she does surprises me. She comes up with some interesting stuff.”
Diarta Kurteshi’s brother, Diamant, a junior at Trenton High School, says that while his sister likes to draw, writing is her strongest suit.
Her sister, Diana Kurteshi, a freshman at Trenton High, said Diarta likes to draw a lot in her spare time and is the first in their immediate family to demonstrate that talent.