High school students make art out of beach trash

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First Place - Scuttle, made by Sam Hargy, Sara Poggi, Olivia Jacobs, Casey McAndrews, Caley Bennett and Molly Houghton — Photo courtesy of Martha's Viney

After a recent beach clean-up, the  members of the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS) “MVironment Club”  were inspired to raise awareness for the need to keep our beaches clean. Club members Maddy Moore, Zach Bresnick, and Ellie Reagan decided to challenge students to use the equivalent of the trash they found at the beach to make sea-themed art as part of an “Under the Sea” Recycled Beach Trash Art Competition. The hope was that in working with the trash items — such as plastic containers, bags, straws, and styrofoam — students would think about the impact of having those items in our oceans. Ninety students created 43 beach trash awareness projects, with the assistance of MVRHS art department faculty Chris Baer and Brendan Coogan. The entries were judged by Emma Green-Beach from the Great Pond Foundation and Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group and Liz Baldwin from BiodiversityWorks. And the winners were:

First place: “Scuttle” by Sam Hargy, Sara Poggi, Olivia Jacobs, Casey McAndrews, Caley Bennett,  Molly Houghton. Second place: “Jellyfish” by Kenny Hammond. Third place: “Sheldon” by Emma Caron, Kyra Whalen, Samantha Potter, Sabrina Reppert. Honorable mentions can be seen online at mvtimes.com/on-Island.