News Release

July 18, 2012

Contact:
Mary Geiger
Communications Director
Kansas Department of Agriculture
(785) 296-2653 phone
Mary.Geiger@kda.ks.gov

Winners of KDA’s Photo Contest Announced

TOPEKA – The winners have been announced in the first-ever Kansas Department of Agriculture (KDA) photo contest.

The agency received almost 900 photos from 126 youth, adult, employee and professional photographers in the contest, which concluded July 18. KDA invited individuals to submit photos that displayed all aspects of Kansas agriculture.

The agency allowed the public to vote for their favorite photos by hosting the contest on its Facebook page. A first place winner was selected in each category by the amount of “likes” a photo received. The four category winners advanced to a finals round.

Kate Hagans, a 17 year-old student from Utica, won the top prize with her photo titled “Kansas the Beautiful.” It received 573 votes in the finals round to take the top prize.



The winners in each category will receive $100 gift cards and the runner-up participants will receive $50 gift cards. The winning photograph will be featured on KDA’s Facebook page.

The winner and runner-up in each category were as follows: Youth – Kate Hagans of Utica (winner) and Dawson Miller of Fulton (runner-up); Adult – Kay Smith of Wetmore (winner) and Lindsay Bowman of Greens Fork, Indiana (runner-up); KDA Employee – Samantha Ramskill of Overbrook (winner) and Annie Patterson of Holton (runner-up); and Professional – Vance Frick of Durham (winner and runner-up).

“A picture is worth a thousand words when it comes time to tell the story of Kansas agriculture. I thank all of the individuals who participated in the contest and shared a piece of agriculture with us,” said Kansas Secretary of Agriculture Dale Rodman.

Although the contest is over, Rodman said the photographs would continue to be used to promote Kansas agriculture. The photographs will be used on international trips to show agricultural partners about the various aspects of agriculture in the state. The photos will also be used on KDA’s website, in department publications and on social media sites and will be shared with other Kansas agricultural organizations.

All entries are posted on KDA’s Facebook page under photo albums at http://www.facebook.com/KansasDeptofAg.

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