Photo by Wood County Schools CMTA Energy Solutions named two students as the winners of the Wood County Schools Energy Art Contest for designing energy-conservation reminders. Madison Archer, left, won for Light Switch Cover, and Clayton Yeager, right, won for Art Poster. Tommy Myers, center left, and Tom Nicolas, center right, from CMTA presented the awards during Tuesday’s Wood County Board of Education meeting.

Wood Schools students win CMTA Energy Art Contest

PARKERSBURG - CMTA Energy Solutions has announced the winners of the Wood County Schools Energy Art Contest.

The winners were announced at Tuesday’s Wood County Board of Education meeting.

The winner of the Light Switch Cover Contest was Madison Archer, a seventh-grade student at Edison Middle School. Archer’s “Keep Earth Bright, Turn Off the Light” design will be placed on switch plates throughout area schools to remind students and staff to turn off lights when leaving an empty room. 

“I didn’t have a real clear idea of what I wanted to do so I just kind of took it one step at a time,” she said. “I knew that turning off the lights and conserving electricity helps save the Earth, so one thing lead to the next and it just came together.”

Clayton Yeager, a freshman at Parkersburg South High School, won the Energy Art Poster Contest with his Uncle Sam-themed poster “I Want You to Conserve Energy!” His design will be printed and displayed throughout Wood County schools as a reminder that energy conservation is a group effort but relies on the actions of individuals. 

“Uncle Sam is an American classic,” Yeager said. “I thought it would be cool to do something everyone would recognize. He is pointing at each of us, saying we all have to do our part to conserve energy.”

CMTA Project Manager Tom Nicolas presented each student with a certificate and Amazon gift card at Tuesday’s meeting.

“We all individually do our part and collectively make a difference,” Nicolas said. “It starts with us creating that culture” of energy conservation. 

CMTA is working with Wood County Schools to reduce energy waste at the district’s facilities through a variety of projects, from energy management systems to window replacements and more efficient heating and cooling systems.