Winners Named in Anti-Litter Poster Contest

Ann Street School students Joao Ramos and Steven Ruas won first place among first to fourth graders and Wilson Avenue School student Kathy Rodrigues won first place for fifth to eighth grade students in the Ironbound Business Improvement District’s (IBID) recent tenth annual Anti-Litter Art Contest. 

The schools received trophies signifying their success in drawing attention to the IBID’s “Let’s Work Together to Keep the Ironbound Clean” quality of life initiative. The winning students also received commemorative plaques from the IBID. The contest was sponsored this year by Investors Bank, Commercial District Services (CDS) and East Ward Councilman Augusto Amador.

Amador, a longtime supporter of the contest, noted the importance of the Ironbound’s young people as inspiration for their families, friends and neighbors regarding an issue that impacts everyone in the community including residents, the business community and visitors.

Bonnie Hagen, the IBID’s Asst. Director of Programs, said the IBID has printed 17,500 postcards featuring the artwork of the winning students plus information about the Ironbound District’s trash pick-up and recycling schedules as well as rules and regulations regarding waste disposal. The postcards will be distributed through the Ironbound’s schools  and to district business and commercial property owners, as well as other community members. Hagen, assisted by IBID Office Manager Leysly Roldan, coordinated all details of the contest, working with the principals and art teachers from the Ironbound’s schools regarding the contest rules and submissions and also supervised the judging by the IBID’s board of directors.

“We organized this year’s contest to coincide with Earth Day, so we decided to print only postcards instead of posters to conserve paper,” Hagen said.  “Distributing the postcards at this time also reinforces the message about proper trash disposal and recycling to help make the Ironbound a cleaner place to live, to work and to visit.”

For more information, contact the Ironbound Business Improvement District by phone at 973.491.9191, by email at nwkibid@aol.com or visit the IBID web site, GoIronbound.com.