The Alameda Unified School District (AUSD) LGBTQ+ Roundtable announced the winners of the annual Everyone Belongs Here Poster and Poetry Contest on May 30.

Alameda High School (AHS) senior Calloway Rodriguez was the overall poster winner. Rodriguez’s poster depicts numerous people holding a piece sign around a multicolored heart. Love Elementary School fourth grade students Ariana Padilla La Torre and Layla Lopez won the elementary school poster competition with a submission that had the message of Black Lives Matter. Wood Middle School sixth grader Galilea won the middle school poster competition.

AHS senior Madison Melanson won the high school poetry competition with her poem titled, “Unsprouted.” Bay Farm Elementary fourth grader Sania Hassan won the K-5 poetry competition with her poem titled, “Whatever They Say.” (See page 4 to read the winning poems.)

“Everyone Belongs Here” was the guiding theme, but the AUSD LGBTQ Roundtable committee asked contestants to “emphasize what Everyone Belongs Here means to you” in their submissions. This included (but was not limited to): gender, race, sexuality, ethnicity, ability, COVID, wealth, and age.

The submission deadline was May 23. A panel of notable Alamedans selected the winning submissions. Judges included Alameda Mayor Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft, AUSD Senior Director of Equity and African American and Multi-Ethnic Student Achievement Shamar Edwards, Girls Inc. of the Island City CEO Christine Chilcott, USS Hornet Museum Executive Laura Fees and AHS student and Alameda Unified School District (AUSD) LGBTQ+ Roundtable member Anika Miller.

A celebration of all participants was held on June 4 at The Healing Garden, at 1435 Webster St.