Last week, Greenbelt Access Television (GATe) announced the winners of its first Rose Award for Best Greenbelt Community Video. When this contest was launched last year, the plan was to award the winner a prize of $200. GATe’s board, encouraged by the number of great submissions, decided to award prizes to the second and third place winners as well. GATe received a total of 19 qualified submissions for the 2020 contest.
The winning entry, Walking the Maglev Path, was submitted by Catherine Plaisant. The 3-minute video impressively shows the devastating impact the Maglev train would have on the Greenbelt Forest Preserve, if it were built. The second place went to Susan Harris for her video My Front Garden Makeover with Vines and Paint. The video tells the story of a makeover by Harris to the exterior of her 1937 block Greenbelt Homes Inc. rowhouse, using vines and beads to update the front yard and a new coat of paint on the exterior of the house. The third prize went to Sally Davies for Labyrinth of Life. A local artist, Davies created this 2-minute time-lapse film of one of her award-winning works by photographing her canvas repeatedly as she painted.
GATe station manager Phoebe McFarb commented: “I wasn’t sure what to expect when we started this contest, what kinds of videos we would receive and how many. In the end, I was pleased to see we’d gotten quite a few and I was so impressed by the creativity of the submissions. I love that the three winning videos showcase such different styles of content. The first year of the Rose Award was a resounding success and I’m looking forward to seeing all the video submissions we will get this year.”
Congratulations to all the Rose Award winners and a big thank you to all participants, as well as the three judges, Chris Haley, Holly Fountain and Leta Mach. The winners received a certificate and a check – $200 for first place, $100 for second place and $50 for third place.
The prize-winning videos can be viewed on the GATe website, greenbeltaccesstv.org/rose-award.