Montville Township Public Schools - Educate.Inspire.Empower

Vani Sharma is one of only three winners in the NJ Natural Gas [NJNG] Annual Poster Contest. Sharma, a fifth grade student at William Mason Elementary School, submitted a conservation poster design in the fall as part of the William Mason fifth grade Science curriculum.

Now in its 17th year, the NJNG poster contest is officially known as the “NJ Natural Gas Annual Conserve to Preserve® [CTP] Kids and Conservation Poster Contest.” The poster contest is open only to NJ fifth grade students. The annual event is one of several educational outreach initiatives sponsored by NJNG to promote conservation across the Garden State. NJNG received approximately 2,000 entries for the poster contest. Only three students in the entire state won the 2023 contest.

“I want to congratulate Vani on an outstanding poster,” said Carolyn Cannon, the Manager of Educational Programming and Customer Advocacy at New Jersey Natural Gas. “I also want to congratulate William Mason Elementary School.”

Cannon presented Sharma with an iPad, a framed copy of her winning poster, a Certificate of Excellence, and other items during an in-class awards ceremony on Wednesday, March 6, 2024. During the ceremony Cannon noted that another William Mason student also won the contest several years ago.

“William Mason participates in this contest every year as part of our Science class,” said fifth grade teacher Jennifer McLaughlin.

“The posters inspire those of us who work at NJNG,” Cannon explained. She also noted that NJNG loves holding the annual competition because it is exciting to see how kids are thinking about the future and the many ideas they have to encourage conservation across New Jersey.

McLaughlin and fifth grade teachers Brooke Williams and Melissa Garcia incorporate the state-wide NJ Natural Gas poster contest into the STEAM initiatives they annually plan for the fifth grade conservation unit. The unit occurs near the start of each academic year.

According to NJNG’s njresources.com website, the 2023 Poster contest was designed to highlight the fact that, “Saving energy and protecting our environment is important for everyone's future. You can do your part to help, every day. Here's your chance to show us how!”

During the March 6 awards ceremony, Cannon thanked the William Mason students for the posters they each submitted. Cannon also talked about how students focused on many types of conservation. Sharma’s poster highlighted recycling, composting, saving energy, eliminating pollution, and saving water. Sharma also encouraged others to use green sources of energy.

In addition to the awards Cannon presented to Sharma, the William Mason fifth grade classes received $500, McLaughlin, Williams and Garcia received a $100 gift card, and William Mason Elementary School received $1000 for an environmental project.

William Mason Elementary School is one of five elementary schools in the Montville Township Public Schools district. MTPS also has one middle school and one high school. Nearly 300 of the district’s 3,400 students attend William Mason Elementary School.