By Taylor Templer
The Third Annual YES! (Youth Eco Solutions) State Award Ceremony was held at Target Field on May 12th, 2019. This event was attended by over 100 YES! students, coaches, staff, and supporters. Top qualifying teams included New London-Middle School, Sartell Middle School, Sleepy Eye Schools, and Northern Lights Community School (Warba). YES! works hard to bring opportunities like these to its students where they can showcase the hard work they do throughout the school year!
Students were escorted onto Target Field near home base during the pregame show where the State Champions were announced, and awards were presented by Diana Siebels from Waste Management.
- New London-Spicer Middle School was awarded the 2019 State Champion All Star Award for their dedication to completing projects that included Christmas light recycling, hosting an outdoor science day for their younger peers, raising money for LED lights in their school, and much more! The team received a $500 prize award sponsored by Waste Management.
- Northern Lights Community School was awarded the 2019 State Champion Water Stewardship Award for their hard work on water related projects including safe drinking water research, raising trout in their classroom, educating the community on aquatic invasive species, and more! The team received a $500 prize award sponsored by Waste Management.
To earn their way to the State Competition, qualifying teams had to win a regional competition. The 4 regional teams were presented with the All-Star Award for their high scoring in teamwork, goal setting, community leadership, ecological impact, community education, and water stewardship.
We can’t wait to see what next year brings as many teams will continue their important work and new teams will join the program. The State Competition has put a fire under the teams to try even harder and reach even further next year to complete their goals and projects. Congratulations to all the teams involved in the various competitions this year as each teams’ dedication, innovation, and passion was evident throughout every project they completed.
Major funding for the YES! program was provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR).
