Winning artwork from coloring contest featured on city calendar
Local students enter 120 drawings

The Calabasas Environmental Commission has named 13 winners in its annual recycling coloring contest. The winning entries will be distributed citywide in calendars this week.

The environmental commission received 120 entries from children in kindergarten through eighth grade for this year's contest. The commissioners reviewed the artwork at their Nov. 6 meeting, evaluated the entries based on creativity and theme, and revealed the winners last week.

The drawings are printed in the 2008 City of Calabasas Community Recycling Awareness calendar, which will be distributed to every household and school in Calabasas.

The commission honored the winners and their families by presenting them their framed artwork at an awards ceremony last week.

"The young students were enthusiastic to share their own recycling habits, which included recycling bottles, cans, and paper," said Alex Farassati, the city's environmental services manager.

"Several conveyed the importance of recycling as a way to reduce the amount of waste and conserve resources. They all agreed that recycling is indeed one simple action people can take to help preserve the environment," he said.

The winners, listed alphabetically, are:

Rachel Benesh, fourth grader at Welby Way Elementary School in West Hills; Andrea Chahayed, fourth grader at Welby Way; Wellington Cheung, seventh grader at A.E. Wright Middle School; Krista Cook, sixth grader at Viewpoint School; Armin Dorri, eighth grader at Hale Middle School in Woodland Hills;

Nicole Gindorf, eighth grader at Hale; Catherine Gronkiewicz, third grader at Castlebay Lane Elementary School; Whitney Levine, sixth grader at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran School; Kent Matsumoto, eighth grader at A.E. Wright; Erica McPike, eighth grader at A.E. Wright; Megan Nison, fifth grader at Chaparral Elementary School; Hunter Pearson, second grader at Sumac Elementary; and Arielle Sperber, seventh grader at Lindero Canyon Middle School.