Bucket trees take top award at 34th Caring for the Kenai

A solution to help campers safely and successfully extinguish their fires won top honors at the 34th Annual Caring for the Kenai Competition on Thursday at Kenai Central High School.

Girl Scout Troop 210, which includes Caitlyn Eskelin, Emma Hindman, Kadie Newkirk and Lyberty Stockman, won $1,600 for “Bucket Trees,” which they described as a series of wooden structures they created and have already deployed at some local campsites that hold loanable buckets for dousing flames, according to a release from Caring for the Kenai.

During the final presentations Thursday night, 12 projects were presented to a panel of judges including Clayton Holland, Bruce Jackman, Ben Wright, David Thomas, Pegge Erkeneff, Tim Dillon and last year’s winner Paxton McKnight.

At the event, the winning troop spoke about their project, saying they were looking to provide easy and free access to an important tool for putting out personal campfires.

They said that in 2022, they put out eight trees at campgrounds in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. Responses were so positive that they deployed an additional 10 in 2023.

The blueprints for the simple wooden structures are also available for anyone to use.

They said they considered people of different abilities, ensuring that the lowest branch of each tree would be low enough to be easily accessible.

“We gave people a fun and proper way to put out their fires,” the scouts said. “Our hopes for the future of this project is to expand to campgrounds all over.”

Taking second place and $1,100 was Lucia Micciche, who presented an idea to revamp signage and other notices for the dangers of Cook Inlet mud flats.

In the release, Micciche says, “Many people who were just out for fun have lost their lives in the mud flats. My idea is to put further signage along the flats to ensure that tourists and Alaskans are safe and aware of the dangers there.”

Xinlan and Xiling Tanner won third and $900 for producing a video encouraging youth to get interest in sustainable agriculture.

John Guerra and Caden McKinney won fourth and $750 for creating a hydroponic grow kit.

Abigail Crumline won fifth and $650 for creating an informational brochure intended to inform the public about the threat chokecherry trees can pose to moose and ways to mitigate that risk.

Afton Roberts won sixth and $550 for a proposal to revive local ham radio clubs in the interest of disaster preparedness.

Other presenters included Ava Spurgeon, Hadley Howell, Rylan Broyles, Emma Semmens, Asher Franey, and a team including Ruby Davis, Isla Crouse, Annemarie Lacy and Lucia Carson. Each will receive $400 for making it to the finals.

The release says that in addition to the $8,000 in cash prize awards, a total of $20,000 will be distributed to schools who used Caring for the Kenai as part of their curriculum, including Soldotna High School, Cook Inlet Academy, Homer High School, Nikiski Middle/High School and Connections Home School.

The prize pool comes from support by Marathon Petroleum, Kenai River Raven Lodge, Peninsula Community Health Services, Sweeney’s Clothing, Eyewear Express, Hilcorp, ConocoPhillips, Kenai River Sportfishing Association, Homer Electric Association and KSRM radio group.

“The creativity and resiliency of our community and our youth over the years never ceases to amaze me,” Caring for the Kenai creator Merrill Sikorski says in the release.

For more information, including a full video archive of the presentations, visit caringforthekenai.org.

Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.