Congratulations to the Winners of the 2024 Ocean Awareness Contest: Tell Your Climate Story!
November 18, 2024Message from Founder and President Linda Cabot
“The best way out is always through” – Robert Frost
As we face unprecedented times, this simple quote feels like a guidepost as we all work together through to a better, more equitable, and more sustainable world. As always, I am buoyed and inspired by our Bow Seat participants’ passion, talent, and empathy.
Reclaiming Nature by Meilin (May) Shen (Newport Beach, CA), Gold Award in Senior Visual Art: Handcrafted
This year’s Contest theme, Tell Your Climate Story, generated over five thousand powerful personal narratives and creative artworks depicting how climate change has gravely affected our lives. Our students demonstrated how wildfires, droughts, floods, storms, and temperatures have dramatically increased and are impacting all living beings in alarming ways. The Bow Seat crew and team of 80 judges want to thank all our participants for their courage, creativity, and honesty as they created these personal and compelling works of art, poetry, prose, film, music, dance, and more. Reviewing these submissions was an incredibly moving experience, and they have formed a new collection of persuasive climate knowing and witnessing.
Just Me by Jeeho Choi Alvarado (Puebla, Mexico), Gold Award in Junior Visual Art: Digital
And while we congratulate the 2025 Bow Seat winners, we also applaud and recognize all the young people who submitted this year to Tell Your Climate Story and became part of our “contest movement”. To all our participants, learning to share one’s voice and creative works is a crucial, life-affirming practice whether you are a “contest winner” or not. Always keep exploring and sharing your creativity and see what blooms. All together, you have made a noticeable impact – our large community demonstrates a powerful reflection of youth environmental activism. Being in this together is what drives change. Community matters. Now more than ever, we need each other.
Waves to Ashes by Kayden Chong (Fullerton, CA), Silver Award in Junior Visual Art: Handcrafted
In closing, we understand the frustration, disappointment, and deep despair of political leaders not taking action on the environment, human suffering, climate, healthcare, and justice. Likewise, we know the power of activism, and I take inspiration from long-standing social justice and civil rights movements with their capacity to endure and respond to changing and challenging landscapes. We at Bow Seat hear you, we see you, and we want to be there for you. We are now starting a Letters to Bow Seat program where you can email us any individual thoughts and questions and we can help guide you to relevant opportunities and resources or just be a listening friend. Please do reach out to us at [email protected].
In community,
