Rocky Ridge 4th degrees wins Hoovers Essay competition 2025 Arbor Day

Alice Boyte, the Rocky Ridge Elementary School, was appointed winner of the Hoover Board 2025 as the winner of the Essay Contest of the Hoover Beautification Board 2025.

Boyte was recognized at the city council meeting on Monday evening with other individuals and read their essay on a complete auditorium.

Every fourth grader in the schools in Hoover City had the opportunity to write an essay about the Arbor Day and submit it for the competition, and the three most important essays from every school were sent to the Hoover beautification committee.

The topic for this year's competition was “trees for tomorrow: the future is in our hands”.

In her essay, Boyte spoke about how her grandparents planted a tree for her mother, when her mother was born and how she saw pictures of her mother as a young girl who stood next to the tiny shimmer, as well as current pictures that show the tree twice as large as the house in which it was planted.

Boyte said it was cool to see how much the tree had grown over the years, and she thought about how the tree made birds available to build nests and made pollen for butterflies and shadows for humans.

She also asked her parents to plant a tree last Saturday in the hope that her tree will provide people and animals food, protection, beauty, oxygen and shadow. “Even a tree can make the future a healthier and happier place,” she said.

Other winners of Hoover schools were:

• Bluff Park Elementary – Sebastian Wille
• Brocks GAP Intermediate – Aryn Collins
• Deer Valley Elementary – William Azok
• Greystone Elementary – Luke Hamby
• Gwin Elementary – Juliana Faili
• Green Valley Elementary – Joshua Hitchcock
• Shades Mountain Elementary – Hannah Ma
• Trace Crossings Elementary – Eddy Molina

The city of Hoover celebrated last Saturday in Aldridge Gardens, including a competition, activities and craft for children as well as information about tree protection, tree care and other kind and nature conservation.