Scotts Valley High School student Winston Mattwandel was among nine local high school students honored for their original videos about water -wise Gardens earlier this month, culminating the fifth annual student-made video contest organized by the Water Conservation Coalition of Santa Cruz County and the Monterey County Water Awareness Committee.
More than 90 public service announcement-style videos were submitted from high school students in the Monterey Bay area. Two top winners, including Winston, each were awarded a $500 cash prize. Four runners up and three honorable mentions also received prizes. The videos were chosen for their level of visual, sound and editing quality and most importantly, for their messages to inspire water-wise gardening.
“It is terrific to see such interest in water stewardship from the next generation,” Scotts Valley Water District General Manager Piret Harmon said. “We are confident that getting the youth involved now will shape the attitudes and behaviors of the water customers in the future.”
The Scotts Valley Water District Board of Directors acknowledged Winston’s accomplishment at its June 20 meeting.
Winston’s video, Three Easy Ways to be More Water Wise, and the other winning videos can be viewed at www.watersavingtips.org/resources/videocontest. They will air this summer on KION channel 5/46, the Spanish TV station Telemundo 23, KSBW, Santa Cruz Community Television and Watsonville’s public access channel 70. Videos will also be shown before movies at the Cinema 9 in Santa Cruz.
Also, as part of the video contest, Scott Valley High received a $300 award for the Green Team and the Career Technical Education Partnership Video Production program, led by teachers Mark Andrews and Joel Domhoff.
