Students through the eighth grade face a new creative challenge.

The Protect Our Pollinators group and The Newtown Bee are cosponsoring the Pollinator Poster Challenge, which asks students to submit a drawing, painting, poem, song, photo, or collage of a favorite pollinator - a honeybee, butterfly, moth, wasp, some flies and beetles, hummingbirds, or bats. These are the creatures visiting flowers, which helps to pollinate plants that grow fruit, according the background information recently provided to schools for teachers' and parents' reference. Protect Our Pollinators member Mary Gaudet-Wilson had sent documents to Superintendent Joseph V. Erardi, Jr, on Monday, May 2.

The information he received includes answers to questions such as "What can you do right now?" The answers, "Creating artwork that shows how important pollinators are to you will be used to get the message out."

Ms Gaudet-Wilson hopes to raise awareness about pollinators, and the perils they face. Part of the background information, pollinators are in trouble.

"Pollinator populations have suffered great losses in recent years," the information states. A third of the existing honeybees die every year, and the monarch butterfly's population has dropped by 90 percent, the document states. One species of bee is nearly extinct. "The declines are the result of overuse of pesticides, loss of habitat, and diseases."

Also according to the background Ms Gaudet-Wilson provided, "Without pollinators, we would lose most of the plant life that makes up our world. In addition, pollinators are responsible for one-third of the food we eat. Most of our fruits and vegetable production is made possible by pollinators."

Poster and artwork entries must be dropped off at The Newtown Bee office, 5 Church Hill Road, before June 1. Entries will be displayed at Newtown Municipal Center during June. Student name, age, phone number, and e-mail address should be listed on the back of each entry. The suggested size of poster board is 11 by 14, but other sizes will be accepted.

For more information, call 203-417-1109 or send an inquiry to mhgwilson@sbcglobal.net. Entries are eligible for prizes.