MINDEMOYA—Students at two local Manitoulin Island elementary schools used their creative skills to come up with an official logo for the Lake Mindemoya Stewardship Association (LMSA).
“There could have been a lot of first place winners in the contest,” stated Jean-Marc Pitre, of LMSA in presenting the winning logo contest prize to Emery Watson, a grade eight student at Central Manitoulin Public School (Mindemoya). CMPS grade eight student Ava Corbiere won the second prize.
Mr. Pitre, along with LMSA member Cecilia Racine, explained that LMSA had requested students from both CMPS and Lakeview Elementary School submit their own hand-drawn logos that could be considered by LMSA as their new logo. “We had a total of 52 entries submitted from students at the two schools. They were fantastic. We made sure the kids’ names weren’t on their submissions and passed all the entries on to five judges to select the top two.”
For having her logo selected for first prize in the logo contest, Ms. Watson won fishing tackle, printed store goods and other swag like a cooler and phone holders from Up Top Sports Shop in Mindemoya. The second prize, which went to Ms. Corbiere, includes an Island Time Boat Rentals certificate for free rent of a kayak for two, for a day.
There were also several honourable mentions for students who had submitted logos including Rylan Carrick, Mya Balfe, Carson and Grace, Ellen and Finn, as well as Eric Wahl.
In the summer of 2021, at the request of Central Manitoulin council, the Lake Mindemoya Stewardship Association was formed. The mission statement of this volunteer membership group is to protect and look after the present and future water quality of Lake Mindemoya by addressing and ensuring that the lake water quality and the overall ‘lake experience’ will not be compromised as a result of any additional pollution or development without necessary approvals or permits.
LMSA has identified six specific focus areas including increased water testing, public beach enhancement, promoting education information on responsible land/water use, preventing excessive shoreline erosion and unauthorized shoreline modifications and fish population monitoring and support.
It was explained that as LMSA moves forward in developing its organizational structure and focus areas, at the its January membership meeting it was also proposed that the association should have some type of logo to identify itself as an association. It was decided that contest should be organized to have local elementary students come up with a design for the logo. To that end, principals at both Lakeview Elementary School and CMPS were contacted and invited to have their students participate in the contest. Two local businesses in Mindemoya, The Up Top Sport Shod and Island Time Boat Rentals agreed to donate the prizes to the top two entries.
“I would like to thank the principals, teachers and students from Lakeview School and CMPS for their participation in this contest,” said Stan Drystek, LMSA chairperson. “The judges had a very difficult time making their final decisions due to some very good design entries. Also, a very heartfelt thank you goes out to The Up Top Sport Shop and Island Time Boat Rentals for their generous donations of the prizes to the contest winners.”
