Contest winners’ art featured on recycling trucks

LIMA — The frog looks as it if might leap right off the truck. And when it catches your eye, South Science Technology Magnet fifth-grader Salutiano Mendez hopes you'll remember to stop polluting his frog's pond.“Ninety-one percent of the time they die because of pollution,” he recites a fact learned in science class.Salutiano's frog is plastered on the side of an Allied Waste Services recycling truck that will make its rounds through the city for the next several months. Three other Lima schools pupils' art pieces are on other trucks. The four are winners of the company's third annual Earth Day Art Contest. The trucks were unveiled Monday.“I was like, wow,” Salutiano said of seeing the truck for the first time. “I think it is good for people to see so they start recycling.”“I am thankful to the judges,” Independence Elementary School third-grader Rahsaan Moore said. “I really like it.”Rahsaan's picture shows a city scene, including the Statue of Liberty. It reads “Help the Earth. Keep America Beautiful.” He say's the most important thing he has learned about the environment is to “not keep the water on.”More than 200 Lima schools pupils submitted pictures to the contest. The numbers keep growing each year, said Eric Webber, account executive with Allied Waste. The company hopes the project helps raise awareness about recycling and Earth Day.“We want to do the right thing and help educate students,” he said. Independence fourth-grader Ke'Nyah Sanders got quite a surprise when arriving for the unveiling Monday and seeing her “Let's Talk Trash” picture on the truck. “I did not know it was going to be big. I thought it was just going to be a regular picture,” she said. “I'm proud of myself and happy. My picture is going to be on the truck until I get into fifth grade.”Parents of the winners were equally, if not more proud, forcing their children to stand in front of the trucks for tons of pictures. The youngest winner, Heritage Elementary first-grader Courtney Glick, was a little shy talking about her picture, two hands holding the Earth. She had much more to say when asked what she is learning about the environment.“Try to keep the Earth clean,” she said. “My class went outside to pick up garbage off our playground.”Other finalists of the contest were Alexis Werling, Jaliyah Batts and Maranda Miller, of Unity, Tyriana Mack and Kiera Savage, of Heritage, Lynnae Wheeler, Bryan Ferris Jr., Alyssa Dailey, Alyse Williamson, Kalisha Macklin, Keaton Hittle, Soren Cress and Zai'Kaijah Ware, of Independence, and Xylon Payne-Greeno, Lynsey Thompson, D'Ayziah Denson, Naudia Spivey and Sa'Kiyha Matthews, of South Science Technology Magnet.Judges for the contest were officials from the city of Lima, Allen County commissioners, Lima Allen County Chamber of Commerce and North Central Ohio Solid Waste District.