The East Bay Regional Park District congratulates the winners of the 9th annual “Habitat Means Home” poster contest at Coyote Hills Regional Park.

The 2015 winners are Hannah Chacko (first place), Aidan Jordan Peter (second place) and Maya Valiyaveettil (third place). Hannah attends Mission San Jose Elementary, Aiden attends Weibel Elementary, and Maya attends Forest Park Elementary. All three were in third grade when they won the contest.

Honorable mentions went to: Annabelle Lin, Rishon Nazareth, Ella Jane Child, Vipransh Sinha, Sanjana Tatavarthi, Ryan Rani, Reva Agarwal, Christine Yiu, Priyal Sinha, Praneetha Sankeshi, Kaushal Prodduturi, Amrit Kohli, Gia Ginjupalli, Nathan Dean, Bhavika Mendiratta, Archisha Anshuman, Maitreyi Chauhan, Aaron Peter, Audrey Wang, and Kristi Nguyen.

The contest, sponsored by the Citizens Committee to Complete the Refuge, the Ohlone Audubon Society and Friends of Coyote Hills, is intended to raise children’s awareness of the diverse species and habitats that exist at Coyote Hills Regional Park in Fremont. Snowy egrets, king snakes, monarch butterflies and striped skunks were among the creatures the children chose to draw.

“I love the creativity and imagination shown in these posters,” said East Bay Regional Park District director Ayn Wieskamp, whose district includes the Fremont area. “These students’ hard work and obvious care for the environment really gives us all hope for the future.”

The contest was open to all elementary students in Fremont, Newark and Union City. About 150 children entered.

An awards ceremony was held at the Coyote Hills Visitor Center on May 16. The first-place winner’s school was given a $500 donation. In addition, the top two winners were honored at a July 7 East Bay Regional Park District Board of Directors meeting.

Coyote Hills Regional Park is located at 8000 Patterson Ranch Road, Fremont.

The East Bay Regional Park District is a system of beautiful public parks and trails in Alameda and Contra Costa counties east of San Francisco Bay, established in 1934. The system comprises 119,000 acres in 65 parks including over 1,250 miles of trails for hiking, biking, horseback riding and nature learning.

For more information, go to www.bayrefuge.org or call Carolyn Jones, Public Information Supervisor, (510) 544-2217, cjones@ebparks.org.