Recycled Holiday Ornament Contest Winners

On Sunday, November 28th, Mayor Terry Stark announced the names of the Oxford Academy Primary school award recipients at the Holiday Tree Lighting on the Park ceremony. The winners of the first annual Recycled Holiday Ornament Contest (which may be a first in New York State), are: Jaret Gates, who won with three titled entries, "X-mas Alien Space Ship", "X-mas Lantern and Dinosaur Foot"; Dan Woodford won with two entries, a sparkling light bulb and a glittery can; and Rece Camadine won with his inventive caterpillar. All are from the Academy's kindergarten class. There were two winners from the Oxford Academy second grade class, and they are: Jesse Gates, with his Ferris Wheel and Sara "Sadie" Gregory with her pop-bottle angel. From the third grade class, there were also two winners: Corey Hadlock with two hanging paper ornaments and Danielle Camadine won with her snowman.

The motto, Recycle, Reduce, & Reuse was clearly defined in this contest by some very creative minds. In some instances, it seems that the unusual materials served as motivation, producing some untraditional Holiday ornaments. Silvery, high-tech CD's were inspirational in the three Gate's ornaments - Ferris Wheel , Lantern and Alien Space Ship. Like Pop-Art of the 1960's, Woodford's light bulb and adorned can retained their original shapes, however, the decorative use of pearlized paint and plenty of sparkling glitter promoted them to ornament status. Rece Camadine's caterpillar cleverly used egg carton sections for body segments.

For others, like Danielle Camadine's snowman and the hanging paper ornaments by Corey Hadlock, they made the materials work with their subject. Their designs are similar to traditional themed Christmas tree decorations, very charming, but with an updated recycled twist . The angel ornament by Sadie Gregory, falls into this category as well, using materials that are really quite unique. This winged spirit has a definite fashion sense with a curled aluminum drop-waist skirt, candy wrappers which suggest gold lamé and chiffon, silvery pie pan wings and a twist-tie flip hair-do. It s a heavenly use of keeping trash from the landfill. All are refreshing interpretations of holiday ornaments, but obviously the kids had fun being creative.

Corey_Hadlock	Dan_Woodford	Dan_Woodford
Jared Gates	Jesse_Gates	SGregory
To enlarge the images for a better look, just left click on them

These winning ornaments, with their award ribbons, will be on display in the Village for the month of December. 6 On the Square has generously offered to exhibit the ornaments in the window of thier performing arts center which is also an arts/crafts gallery. The Night Eagle overlooks the Green in Oxford at 15 LaFayette Park. A few other recycled ornaments made by adults are on display for examples.

The award ribbons, displayed with the ornaments, were created by the artistic duo from Oxford's crafting shop, Creative Stamping . They're located at 4 LaFayette Park, right next to 6 On the Square. PON members, Cindy Shipley and her jeweler sister, Susan E. Wells, recycled scraps of paper that would ordinarily be waste material, and transformed them into unique award ribbons. Aiding Cindy and Susan, was Nancy Cody, a talented card designer, and volunteer in the Oxford Primary school.

The sponsor, the Oxford Holiday Decorating Committee, received support from the DEC in the form of printed matter and recycled pencils. The DEC also donated a colorful, recycled tote bag, which was presented to Oxford Academy principal, Mrs. Tompkins for her wonderful assistance, and an educational video tape on Composting was given to the Oxford Memorial Library.