Last spring, the Outdoors Alliance for Kids (of which the Sierra Club is a member) and the children’s publishing company Scholastic sponsored an essay-writing contest for children in grades fourth through sixth. The contest asked students to submit essays and accompanying illustrations explaining why the outdoors matters. Nearly 2,000 kids from across the country participated. The grand prize winner received a trip to Olympic National Park, and teachers of the other winning students were given free new educational resources from Scholastic.
Here are the prize-winning submissions! | 
