Photo by Warren Scott More than 70 area students applied imagination and ingenuity to creating works of art from things that might normally be thrown in the trash for the JB Green Team’s annual Trashy Art Contest. Participants in the event, held this weekend at 7 Ranges Entertainment, included from left, front, Irelyn Neilly of Pugliese West Elementary School, who received honorable mention for grades K-4; Gunnar Peckens of John Gregg Elementary School, who placed first for grades 5-8; and Carter Petrella and Paxton Ware, who were among five students who won gift cards through a random drawing in which all participants were entered; and back: Anita Petrella, executive director of the JB Green Team; and Louise Holliday, Jefferson County environmental educator for the JB Green Team. On the table is the entry by Milana Busby of Toronto High School that was named the JG Green Team staff’s favorite.

STEUBENVILLE — More than 70 area students put their minds and hands to work, creating art from empty cans and bottles, cardboard boxes and other items that might otherwise be tossed in the trash for a contest held by the JB Green Team.

It was the ninth year for the contest held by the regional solid waste authority, with the many entries displayed at a new venue, 7 Ranges Entertainment.

Louise Holliday, Jefferson County environmental educator for the JB Green Team, said about 20 judges, recruited from several local agencies and organizations, faced the difficult task of naming winners from the assortment of paintings, models and other works of art submitted from about a dozen schools.

Holliday told students who gathered Saturday afternoon to learn of the winners, “The imagination and work you put into this is truly outstanding.”

Anita Petrella, executive director of the JB Green Team, agreed, saying, “I think every project is worthy because there’s a lot of work and imagination in each of them.”

Receiving gift cards from 7 Ranges Entertainment and T-shirts and certificates from the JB Green Team were the following winners:

∫ Grades K-4: Emerson Stenger, a third grader at Buckeye North Elementary, first place, for a wind chime made with tin cans and baby food jar lids painted green and white; Izzy Creegan, a third grader at Bishop John King Mussio Elementary School, second place, for a flower garden made with colored coffee filters, tissue paper and bottle caps; Eliette Majetich, a kindergartener at Pugliese Elementary West, third place, for a wreath of flowers formed with tissue paper and bottle caps; and Irelyn Neilly, honorable mention, for her depiction of the Easter Bunny’s head using cotton balls, straws and bottle caps.

∫ Grades 5-8: Gunnar Peckens, a sixth grader at John Gregg Elementary School, first place, for the model airplane he fashioned from pop cans and cartons; Wyatt Deah, a sixth grader at Harding Middle School, second place for an entry that had been removed at the time the winners were announced; Sophia Sheets, a sixth-grader at Toronto Junior High School, third place, for a three-dimensional painting of a fox made with pieces of cardboard; and Rayven Williams, a seventh grader at Toronto Junior High School, honorable mention, for her three-dimensional painting on cardboard of a groundhog.

∫ Grades 9-12: Joey Lopez, a senior at Indian Creek High School, first place, for a vase of flowers with pipe cleaner stems and painted paper petals; Savannah Mossor, a sophomore at Toronto High School, second place, for a framed landscape of a tree with cardboard trunk and tissue paper leaves; Milana Busby, a sophomore at Indian Creek High School, third place, for an entry dubbed “Food Chain;’ and Sidney DeStefano, a freshman at Indian Creek High School, honorable mention for a portrait created with cardboard, buttons and seashells.

Busby’s entry — a tower of cardboard boxes on which were painted a fish, an otter and a hawk, complete with fins, ears and wings — won the JB Green Team staff’s award.

Petrella expressed thanks to 7 Ranges Entertainment for allowing the many entries to be displayed in one of its party rental rooms and for supplying gift cards for the prizes.

“They couldn’t have been better hosts,” she said.

Holliday thanked the teachers who encouraged their pupils to participate.

She noted because the JB Green Team serves Jefferson and Belmont counties, a similar contest will be held in Belmont County.