Environmental essay contest registration due April 15

Delaware Interfaith Power & Light announces its second annual essay contest for all high school students statewide, called Renew ... Reflective Essays on Nature, Earth and Their Wonders. More specifically, themes relate to climate change, environmental justice, and humans’ intimate relationship to the natural world.

Registration is required at delawareipl.org by Sunday, April 15.

Essays should be original works crafted by the students, a maximum of 1,500 words on one of the three topics, and emailed anytime between Earth Day, Saturday, April 22, and Sunday, May 7 to renew@delawareipl.org.

Ten cash awards totaling $8,000 will go to the winning essayists.

A short video, featuring students from last year, is available at youtu.be/SDAf7Ydhvcs.

Part of the inspiration for this contest came last year when Delaware Interfaith Power & Light hosted Michael Nelson and Kathleen Dean Moore, co-editors of “Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril,” as presenters for one of its monthly webinars. “Moral Ground,” first published in 2010 and recently reissued, is a collection of essays from more than 80 visionaries around the globe presenting a compelling call to honor people’s individual and collective moral responsibility to the planet.

The intent of this essay contest is to hear from Delaware’s young visionaries and to encourage them to give voice to their own passions, perspectives, motivations and hopes for the future.

A diverse panel of judges, joined by Moral Ground editors Kathy Moore and Michael Nelson, will review and identify winning essays. Scoring will be based on clarity, passion, attention to theme, creativity and effectiveness. An awards ceremony will be planned for this summer.

The mission of Delaware Interfaith Power & Light is to engage faith communities and community partners in addressing the causes and consequences of climate change; to scientifically inform and spiritually deepen people’s understanding of their relationship with the natural world – and with each other – and to act on those understandings.

For more information, go to delawareipl.org, email renew@delawareipl.org, or text or call Charanjeet Singh Minhas at 302-359-2155.