Kadlin Rai Humbracht of Hot Springs, Adelynne Ihnen of Hitchcock, and Kenzley Souhrada of Tyndall are the top three finishers in the 2023 Arbor Day Creative Writing Contest. The winners were selected from 709 entries submitted by fifth and sixth grade students across the state.
In addition to learning more about trees, contest winners receive awards and cash prizes.
First place winner Kadlin Rai Humbracht receives $125, and her school, Hot Springs Middle School, receives $150 for the purchase of supplies or equipment. Second place winner Adelynne Ihnen receives $100, while Kenzley Souhrada receives $75 for third place.
The winners will read their essays and receive their prizes during special Arbor Day celebrations in their hometown areas. All students who entered the contest receive a packet of tree seeds courtesy of the South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Resource Conservation and Forestry Division.
Sponsored by South Dakota’s conservation districts and RCF, the contest provides fifth and six grade students the opportunity to write about the importance of Arbor Day and tree planting in South Dakota.
The Creative Writing Contest has been held in South Dakota for 46 years.
South Dakota celebrates Arbor Day on the last Friday in April. Nebraska newspaper publisher J. Sterling Morton proposed the very first Arbor Day in 1872. On that first Arbor Day, over one million trees were planted in Nebraska.
The winning writings appear below.
First Place – Kadlin Rai Humbracht of the Fall River Conservation District
I remember that when my family and I moved to Hot Springs, South Dakota, I befriended a pine tree, which I named Leafy. I still don’t know why I named a pine tree “Leafy”; however, I do know that Leafy became my best friend.
I would take pieces of Leafy’s bark and I would try to see what they looked like. Some people do the same thing with clouds but, to me, bark was more interesting with its different textures and gradients.
Leafy fueled my imagination, but she also towered outside my bedroom, keeping my room cooler in the summertime. Leafy also holds our swing with her strong, dependable branches. After school, I still look forward to getting home and gently swinging while reading a book. From my bedroom window, it is always so peaceful and calming to hear the birds chirping in the morning. In the spring, you can see all of the nests in Leafy’s secure limbs.
Clearly, Leafy is not just another useless yard ornament. Leafy is a key part of our ecosystem; she houses birds and small animals. She is an energy conserver; my family uses less electricity on air conditioning and several trees block the wind. This is why trees are so important.
Let’s not forget that Leafy is only one tree. Think about all of the other trees in the world and remember everything that they do for us.
Second Place – Adelynne Ihnen of the Spink Conservation District “The Shelterbelt”
Trees have always been important from the beginning, but some trees have more meaning than others. Some just have a special place in your heart, and I am going to talk about an entire shelterbelt of trees that mean a lot to me.
Tall trees stand gallantly above the field, watching over it like tall, wooden guardians. Their beautiful branches sway in the wind, their elegant trunks slice through the air. Other than being beautiful, they have an important job, to protect the field and its crops from the elements.
They were not always this size, years ago they were just little babies, like tiny twigs in a sea of prairie grass. The young trees have survived against the odds, they fought against droughts, winter, flooding, and worst of all, deer. The trees come in many types from towering evergreens to the tiniest of chokeberry trees, but important all the same.
From the time they were planted by my great-grandparents to the present, they have been important, not only to the success of the farm but to the ecosystem. Overall, trees are simple great to keep around.
Third Place – Kenzley Souhrada of Bon Homme Conservation District “The Sun Ray”
Pretty at night, and in the day, your color shines like the sun ray. You are a beautiful place for animals to stay. You keep them safe in the climate where they lay which can harm. You protect predators and prey. You are more than a sun ray.
You have grace and beauty in all types of weather. You are more than a shelter. You are a weather protector. Rain to light, sunny to stormy. You are still a sun ray all day. As the rainwater runs off your leaves, the sun comes out but you are still the best sun ray I have ever seen.
Spring is when people see the beautiful blossoms on the tree. That is spring in my vocabulary. When I think about trees in the spring, I think of photosynthesis in a blossom tree. They are beautiful and they can also be a fruit tree.
Fruit is a sign of summer which means beautiful weather. Apples and oranges are on the trees, all sorts of colors of summer is all I see. Green and pink are the colors I see on a blossoming tree. But now it seems breezy.
The breeze is in season and so are the trees. Now, it is autumn as you can see. Trees are changing colors: reds, yellows and oranges, not green. You are a sun ray of all seasons in change. In the winter, trees will go dormant. Then the cycle starts again.
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