Burlington Electric Celebrates Energy Efficiency Calendar Contest Winners

Every year for more than a decade, the Burlington Electric Department and the Burlington School District have collaborated on the annual Energy Efficiency Calendar contest. This past October, members of the Burlington Electric team visited with the fourth grade classes in all six Burlington elementary schools during national Public Power Week to engage in a short lesson about the important topic of energy efficiency. The lesson culminated with an invitation to all the students to demonstrate through art how they could make a difference by reducing the use of electricity and other forms of energy in their everyday lives.

More than 125 of the amazingly thoughtful and talented fourth graders created beautiful works of art with their impressions of energy efficiency. Fourteen drawings were selected after careful consideration by a panel of judges, and those drawings now fill the pages of Burlington Electric’s colorful and educational 2018 Energy Efficiency Calendar.

Contest winners, teachers and schools, and artwork location are:

• Front Cover: Luca Stanton, Ms. Morris, Sustainability Academy
• January: Lucius Heise, Ms. Brockway, C.P. Smith Elementary School
• February: Dahabo Hassan, Ms. Goetz, Champlain Elementary School
• March: Lily McArthur, Ms. Palmer, Edmunds Elementary School
• April: Binti Awayle, Ms. Burdick, J.J. Elementary School
• May: Antonia Escobar, Mr. Houchens, Edmunds Elementary School
• June: Neave Glennon, Mr. Thibault, Integrated Arts Academy
• July: Bjorn Peterson, Sra. Bangoura, Integrated Arts Academy
• August: Scarlett Contreras-Montesano, Ms. Goetz, Champlain Elementary School
• September: Rose Howell, Mr. Thibault, Integrated Arts Academy
• October: Isabella McDonald, Mr. Palmer, C.P. Smith Elementary School
• November: Amani Dayo, Ms. Legault, Champlain Elementary School
• December: Nolan Beckert, Mr. Thibault, Integrated Arts Academy
• Back Cover: Sammy Berman, Ms. Goetz, Champlain Elementary School

To celebrate their accomplishment, more than 60 people, including our contest winners, their parents, siblings, fourth grade teachers, and school principals, gathered for a special ceremony at Burlington Electric’s Pine Street facility on December 7. During the ceremony, Mayor Miro Weinberger, BED General Manager Neale Lunderville, former BED Commission Chair and Vermont Energy Contracting & Supply Corp. Principal Mark Stephenson, and Lake Monsters mascot CHAMP presented certificates to the winners naming them “energy efficiency champions” and awarded them with $30 each (thank you Vermont Energy) plus a goodie bag filled with Burlington Electric and Lake Monsters schwag. The students learned that, together, we all can make a difference by reducing the use of electricity and other forms of energy in our everyday lives. They also learned that American Flatbread makes amazing pizza (thank you Rob Downey and team for the pizza donation) and that you need a very large cake to fit the names of all the contest winners.

BED offers sincere thank yous to: Burlington’s elementary school principals and fourth grade teachers for welcoming us into their classrooms to engage in discussions about energy efficiency with the students; Burlington’s fourth graders for their enthusiasm and interest in energy efficiency and for the stimulating classroom conversations and the wonderful and creative artwork; and the parents, siblings, and friends who encouraged our fourth graders to participate in the annual energy efficiency calendar contest. Two final special thank yous to BED’s amazing Laurie Lemieux and Cathy Chamberlain are in order for all their behind-the-scenes hard work that ensured the success of the contest and the celebration.

Happy New Year from the Burlington Electric team to all our Burlington customers and families!