HONOLULU — Six Waimea High School students are among the 81 student entrants from among four islands that won in the Wahi Pana Essay Contest that was announced on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day.
Briana Apo took first place in the Marine essay followed by Casera Silva named the second place winner.
Kamalani Goo was the top winner in the Forest essay with Geon Kittredge getting second place.
Rylee Silva-Vidinha was tops in the Other landscapes essay with Leiana Apo announced as the second place winner in the category.
“While their award trips are being delayed because of the COVID-19 crisis, the state’s Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Forestry and Wildlife is announcing the winners of an essay-writing contest for high school students on this 50th anniversary of Earth Day,” states Dan Dennison of the DLNR.
The essays were grouped into landscape categories which students chose to write about. These were scored by a team of volunteer writers, conservationists, and educators from the student’s island.
Waimea High School had the distinction of submitting the most entries in the field of 81 students that took up the challenge.
The contest was announced in December where students were asked to interview someone they know over the age of 50, someone who had introduced them to a wahi pana, a landscape or environment they both cherish.
With the landscapes and ecosystems of Hawai‘i changing quickly, students were to record their elder’s earliest memories of native plants, animals, and landscapes. Additionally, students were asked to imagine their wahi pana by the year 2070 and reflect on actions they can personally take to protect it for the next 50 years.
“Walk with anyone over a certain age in Hawai‘i, and you’ll hear them talk about what used to be here,” said Jeff Bagshaw, the contest coordinator. “That knowledge is precious and needs to be recorded. Reading all the essays was a privilege. Students wrote about salt making, gathering for lei, fishing, hunting, or just hiking — but they all had in common a love for their wahi pana on their island, and always with family. Each showed a connection to ‘aina in ways and places that could only be Hawai‘i.”
Essay winners earning first place on Kaua‘i will have an excursion to Honopu Valley in Napali-Kona Forest Reserve where they will spend a day with a botanist or biologist that will enable them to see the forest through new eyes.
All first and second place winners on Kaua‘i will be awarded a hike and lunch at the Iliau Nature Trail pavilion site, the location being selected because of its accessibility to both students and their families, and it highlights native plant species on Kaua‘i.
Other winners hailed from the Kamehameha Schools-Kapalama campus on Oahu, Baldwin High School on Maui, and Waiakea High School on the Big Island.
