Rideworks Environmental Expressions Contest judges, pictured from left to right: Jean Stimolo, Executive Director of Rideworks; Kathleen Kudlinski, children’s author and New Haven Register nature columnist; Tony Falcone, Falcone Fine Art Studios; and radio personality Brian Smith.

RIDEWORKS unveiled its 9th Annual Children’s Environmental Expressions Calendar at the Shubert Performing Arts Center in New Haven, where students, parents and teachers gathered to view the much-anticipated calendar.

The 2003 calendar contains work from the 21 winners of the 2002 Environmental Expressions Contest, which asked students to express their thoughts and ideas about clean air and transportation choices through visual arts, writing, music and videos. The objective of the contest is to help public and private school students in grades 3 through 8 understand the impact automobile pollution has on the environment and think of ways to make life better through smart choices.

“Our mission at RIDEWORKS is to reduce traffic congestion and pollution by helping people travel any way except by driving alone,” said Jean Stimolo, Executive Director of RIDEWORKS. “For children, traveling together is a fact of life. We found it encouraging that the ideas expressed by these students demonstrate how much they enjoy and support ideas like public transportation or working from home to protect their communities and the environment.”

New Haven’s Moishe Deitsch, a student at New Haven Hebrew Day School in Orange, won the honor of having his artwork displayed on the cover of the 2003 calendar. His cover message was “Connecticut Let’s Get on a Roll and Make Riding Together Our Goal.”

More than 1,100 students from the 38 towns Rideworks serves in the Greater New Haven and Greater Waterbury areas entered their work in the contest. Winning entries included artwork, a poem, videos and a children’s coloring book of ways people can share rides.

Several of the contest judges attended the event and offered the students words of praise and encouragement for their creativity and messages of commitment to saving the environment and reducing congestion: children’s author and New Haven Register columnist, Kathleen Kudlinski; Tony Falcone of Falcone Fine Art Studio in Prospect; and radio personality Brian Smith. Ann Nyberg, News Channel 8 anchor/reporter, also served as a judge.

The Connecticut Department of Transportation, which sponsors a variety of public transportation and ridesharing services designed to reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality, provided funding for the calendar.

The calendar was distributed to approximately 11,000 employers, schools, elected officials, media, etc. For a copy of the 2003 Environmental Expressions Calendar, call Rideworks at 1-800-ALL-RIDE.

Front row: Brandon Rusczek (Moses Y. Beach School, Wallingford) Second row (from left to right): Moishe Deitsch (New Haven Hebrew Day School, Orange); Aaron Levi Deitsch (New Haven Hebrew Day School, Orange); Casey Pitts (St. Mary School, Waterbury); Ryan Gilmore (Moses Y. Beach School, Wallingford) Third row (from left to right): Nicole Pieper (St. Bridget School, Cheshire); Robyn Stanford (Haddam/Killingworth Middle School, Haddam); Chelsea Dostaler (Wallace Middle School, Waterbury); Becky Dunlop (North Branford Intermediate School, North Branford); Alyssa Wollman (North Branford Intermediate School, Northford); Madeline Christensen (North Branford Intermediate School, Northford).