By Taylor Templer
On April 25th the Central Region had their annual Spring judging at Dahmes Stainless Inc. in New London. We hosted five judges including Dan Tepfer (Kandiyohi Power Cooperative), Tim Parsons (Terwisscha Construction), Jon Morales (Middle Fork Crow River Watershed District), Matt Amore (Nova Tech Engineering), and Donna DeGeest (Dahmes Stainless Inc.). The judges were blown away by how much the YES! teams accomplished this school year. The winning teams projects included creating aquatic invasive species peer lesson plans, hosting an outdoor science day for elementary students, recycling Christmas lights, starting a prairie restoration project on 30+ acres of grassland, installing solar panels, retrofitting their schools lighting to LEDs, creating a parking lot prairie to solve erosion and runoff issues and much more! These team are doing such great work in their communities and we are so proud of each and every one of our YES! teams!
Congratulations to the winning teams!
1st Place Award Recipient – Sartell Middle School YES! Team
- Outstanding teamwork within the team and the community. Great focus on making a lasting impact.
- Awarded $500
2nd Place Award Recipient – New London-Spicer Middle School YES! Team
- Appreciable commitment to their projects and making a difference in their community.
- Awarded $400
3rd Place Award Recipient – Tie between ROCORI High School YES! Team and Lac qui Parle Valley High School YES! Team
- Exceptional goal setting and leadership shown while planning projects.
- Each team was awarded $125
Water Stewardship Award Recipient – New London-Spicer High School YES! Team
- Remarkable work on different projects around water quality and learning about why water is important.
- Awarded $350
A special thank you to all the sponsors who have supported the regional prize awards this year including Geronimo Energy, Walmart Community Foundation, Kandiyohi Power Cooperative, Bernicks, and United Way of West Central Minnesota.
We asked the students to tell us why they are involved in YES! and here are a few comments:
“Kids do have good ideas and with YES! we get to act on them.” –New London-Spicer Middle School Student
“YES! is something different. We learn about environmental stuff, I don’t have a class on that.” –Lac qui Parle Valley High School Student
“These lessons will stay with us into adult life.” –Sartell Middle School Student
