Preservation Kentucky partners with the Kentucky Heritage Council to engage Kentucky 's students in historic preservation through the Photo-Essay Competition. The contest has been held each year since 1999. Photo-Essay Contest entries should be thoughtful and creative essays about the importance of preserving and reinvesting in Kentucky 's historic resources for future generations. For the competition, students should photograph a historic building or structure in their community and then write an essay describing the historic resource and explaining its significance while keeping with the yearly theme.

The Kentucky Heritage Council and Preservation Kentucky hope that the Photo-Essay Competition will stimulate young people's interest in historic preservation and will provide an opportunity for students to interact with their local decision-makers (mayors, city council / commission members, county judge/executives, magistrates, etc.) regarding the importance of historic preservation. As part of the competition, students are required to submit a copy of their essay to at least one local decision-maker in addition to judges.

The Kentucky Heritage Council and Preservation Kentucky, Inc. will select first, second, and third place essays from three categories:

Primary (Grades 1-5), Intermediate (Grades 6-8), Secondary (Grades 9-12)

Also, the school submitting the most entries each year will also be recognized and presented with an award for participation.

Photo-essay winners will receive cash awards and other prizes and all competition participants will receive a certificate of recognition. Photo-essay winners will present their winning essays and photographs and will be recognized at a celebration each May.

2008 Photo-Essay Competition Entry Form

To celebrate Preservation Month in May 2008, the Kentucky Heritage Council and Preservation Kentucky, Inc. are pleased to announce Restore-Reuse-Recycle: Photo-Essay Competition for all Kentucky school students. Students should select an older building, site or structure in their community and reflect on how its preservation and adaptive use can benefit environmental causes and sustainable development.  In attempting to discuss the “green” benefits of preservation, students may want to compare the benefits of ‘recycling’ historic places to the cost of ‘throwing them away.”  Students may want to address the intrinsic historic value and significance of the historic site, but also consider the energy used for its production, land fill, replacement material and other environmental costs to Kentucky represented by the loss of historic buildings.  In the essays, the students will want to address the best way to ‘recycle” the selected historic place for the economic, environmental, and social value to the community.