Seniors Win Raleigh “Capture It!” Stormwater Awareness Awards

By Grier Herring, Shield Editor 

Seniors in Mrs. Kristi Stott’s AP and Honors Environmental Science classes recently turned a classroom project into award-winning art to raise awareness about local environmental issues.  

Khloe Moye, Kaitlyn Gronotte, and Ben Borie created a one-minute video focused on protecting and raising awareness for Raleigh’s watershed as part of a project titled “Capture It.” Reece Newman and Lily Burnette created a mixed media art piece called “Choking the Blue.” The Capture It! Arts Contest is a citywide project with the goal of educating people about Raleigh’s water sources. 

The video project tasked the students with creating a short educational video explaining how everyday actions affect local lakes and streams. Moye said, “We talked about some of the facts about our local rivers and streams and how everything in everyday life impacts our watershed and impacts pollution.”  

The group approached the process with a plan to start with an outline and script to make the most of their limited time. They filmed up and down local greenways and captured real examples of pollution in the water. Borie described their approach: “We took videos of trash in the watershed and stated as many examples as we could to spread awareness.” By using visuals of pollution with information on solutions, they tried to make their message encourage environmental stewardship. 

To show practical connections for the people at the awards, the students added scenes from daily life showing how common habits add to environmental damage. The video emphasized that pollution is often the result of small, repeated actions. Borie said, “It made us realize that little things in our everyday life can make a huge difference in our environment and in our community.” 

Winners Reece Newman and Lily Burnette submitted their project in the drawing/painting category. Called “Choking the Blue,” their piece showed how people can create something using their artistic skills that still educates people about how they should treat the environment. Burnette said, “I learned how to reuse stuff and make something beautiful with it. It was like making a puzzle, and we wanted to implement parts of Raleigh too.”  

The process of making the artwork in itself had an impact on the two girls by showing them how much waste every person is contributing. Newman added, “Digging through my trash and recycling bins help me physically see exactly how much trash just my family goes through in a week and how unnecessarily wasteful it all is.”  

The seniors attended the awards ceremony at a citywide Earth Day event held at Dorothea Dix Park. They were invited on stage, and their projects were presented to the public. The event featured vendors and others raising awareness centered on sustainability.  

Beyond the ceremony and awards, the project had a lasting impact on the students. When reflecting on the experience, Gronotte said, “It made me realize just how many people still care about the environment and what we can do to protect it.”  

Both the winning video and mixed media artwork are posted on the City of Raleigh website. Tap here to view the page.