Way to Go! Arianna Vandezande

Arianna Vandezande's statewide victory easily could be called tree-mendous.

The fifth-grader at Stewart Manor Elementary School in Garden City won the 2011 "Trees are Terrific" Arbor Day Poster Contest coordinated by the state Department of Environmental Conservation. The winner was chosen last month from about 2,000 student participants.

Arianna's colored-pencil design consisted of a female superhero complete with tree earrings and a green shirt, as well as a diagramed tree with various facts about photosynthesis.

The piece was based on the contest theme: "Take the Challenge -- Be a Tree Hero."

"It said 'Be a tree hero,' so I thought of a superhero," said Arianna, 11, noting that the superhero resembles her, with blond hair and blue eyes. "Trees produce our oxygen, so it's important we keep them."

For winning, Arianna was invited to plant the official New York Arbor Day Tree last month at the Capitol in Albany. A flowering cherry tree was also planted in her honor at her school.

Her design also was printed on the official New York State Arbor Day bookmark and made into a children's poster.