Student wins poetry award

Zara Enayetullah, a student at G.S. Lakie Middle School, has won a Bronze Award for her poetry submission to the 2020 Ocean Awareness Contest, sponsored by Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Programs (Bow Seat).

Enayetullah, who was selected from approximately 5,300 entries from around the world, received a $250 cash scholarship. Enayetullah also will be featured in Bow Seat’s Gallery, which showcases ocean advocacy artwork created by a global community of youth.

The 2020 Ocean Awareness Contest challenged participants to create a piece that shares their ideas for confronting the climate emergency and emphasizes the role of hope in making meaningful change. Enayetullah’s Poetry submission, titled “Across the Sand,” focused on a record number of sea turtle eggs hatching on India’s beaches at the peak of India’s first wave of COVID-19.

Bow Seat’s annual Ocean Awareness Contest, now in its 10th year, is an awardwinning educational program that provides students with a platform to creatively explore, express and advocate for issues related to our oceans and waterways. Since its launch, the contest has engaged more than 18,000 middle and high schoolers from all 50 U.S. states and more than 100 countries. Bow Seat has awarded over $425,000 in scholarships to help advance teens’ creative talents and passion for the environment.

“Without a doubt, 2020 has been a challenging year with interconnected health, social, and environmental crises affecting us all,” Linda Cabot, founder and president of Bow Seat, said in a news release. “It was appropriate, then, that the 2020 Contest theme — hope — compelled participants to imagine a better future for people and our shared planet, and inspired them to explore solutions to bring this vision to life.

“We are proud that this program not only provided so many students around the world with the opportunity to learn about climate change, but that it also instilled in them a greater sense of agency to actively fight the crisis,” continued Cabot. “Despite the disruptions and distractions they faced this year, students like Zara used their creative voices to speak out for our oceans and our future. We are proud and incredibly excited to support their work.”

The 2021 Ocean Awareness Contest, “Water Rising,” is open now through June 14, 2021, to students ages 11-18 worldwide.

Across the Sand

By Zara Enayetullah

In the midst of a global health war,

A virus that has ravaged every corner of the world,

Producer of separation, sorrow, and anguish.

Scarring the world forever. Transformations creeping along

In India.

A flipper emerges from beneath trillions of sand granules.

Then another flipper,

Until all 4 flippers have emerged completely, and a poking light-green head. The ocean’s waves call and beckon.

Follow the ocean’s murmur. Record-breaking for India,

60 million hatching sea turtles

Shuffle along the sand where humans once frolicked.

Families driven away from beaches out of fear.

Hope is reborn on empty beaches.

Sea turtles are navigating

In peace.