FRANKFORT (March 15, 2022) –Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Dr. Ryan Quarles has announced the winners of the 2022 Kentucky Pollinator Stakeholders Art Contest.

The student art contest, with the theme “Pollinators and Their Floral Hosts in Kentucky,” was designed to educate the public on the benefits of pollinators and encourage behaviors that promote pollinator habitats across Kentucky.

“This contest provides a wonderful way for children to learn about the important role pollinators play in agriculture,” Commissioner Quarles said. “Plain and simple, without pollinators, we don’t have food. The colorful, vibrant, and artistic ways participants found to showcase the relationships between pollinators and their floral hosts have helped spread that message to the public, as well.”

Youth ages 5-18 were invited to participate and entered 177 art pieces focusing on the state’s wide variety of flowers and plants and the pollinators that visit them.

“The symbiotic relationship between pollinators and Kentucky’s flowers is captured beautifully in the art pieces turned in by students,” said Tammy Potter, Kentucky State Apiarist. “Kentucky crops, including many fruits and vegetables, are dependent on pollinators. This was wonderfully depicted in every single piece.”

Contest participants were divided into age categories with prizes awarded for first, second and third place. First-place winners received a $100 prize, second-place a $50 prize and third-place winners received a $25 prize. The prizes are sponsored by Columbia Gas Vegetation Management Team.

Winners include:

Ages 5-8

• First place: Wilder Woods, “Feed Our City Bees,” Fayette County
• Second place: Jacie Lillpop, “Free Food,” Franklin County
• Third place: Madison Iocco, “Pollinating Viceroys in a Field of Goldenrod,” Boone County

Ages 9-11:

• First place: Gavin DeSpain, “Bees in the Garden,” Marion County
• Second place: Brooke Birnsteel, “Just Let Them Bee,” Jefferson County
• Third place: Nora Tower, “Ruby-throated Hummingbirds and Trumpet Vine,” Fayette County

Ages 12-14:

• First place: Madelyn Furlong, “Save Our Rubies,” Owen County
• Second place: Jillian Stomberg, “Kentucky’s Flowers and Pollinators,” Franklin County
• Third place: Luz Maria Barradas, “Kentucky’s Flowers and Pollinators,” Franklin County

Ages 15-18:

• First place: Ashley French, “Kentucky Local Honey,” Jefferson County
• Second place: Avalynne Goins, “Monarchs and Milkweeds,” Woodford County
• Third place: Maria Perez, “Butterflies and Bees,” Owen County
• Third place: Darren Fairchild, “Spread the Love,” Johnson County

To see the winning art pieces, click here.