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From there, school winners were chosen, and these went on to compete against Fairview and Blue Ridge schools. Narrowing the field further, the winners of the county competition travelled to Waynesville for the Area 1 competition; the next step took Wittekind and the other finalists to Raleigh, where they competed against students from around the state.
"There was only one boy," Wittekind said of those in her division, "so I got to meet girls from Raleigh and the coast."
In Wittekind's speech, she urged her listeners to protect their watersheds against pollution.
"We, humans, Homo sapiens, are wrecking the places where we live," she told the audience. "We are faced with an even scarier fact: We can't run away. You may or may not have picked this up already, but every inch of land on the planet is part of a watershed. It's going to be pretty tough to pack up and leave them altogether!"
Wittekind explained the differences between point source pollution and non-point source pollution and offered advice for ways to reduce harm to the environment, such as using non-toxic household chemicals, cutting back on fertilizers and pesticides for the lawn, using landscaping to hold soil in place and keeping septic systems in working order.
"Even though we are all contributing to non-point source pollution," she concluded, "we can correct our behaviors fairly easily, but this is a huge effort, and everyone needs to take part."
Wittekind stressed that originality is the most important part of a competition like this one.
"You have to have your own ideas," she said. "Sit down with yourself and plan."
Creativity was also a factor in Wittekind's success. She explained that she used hand gestures to convey her ideas.
"At one point, I pretended I was a mountain," she said.
Her efforts paid off, and the judges awarded Wittekind with $200 and a plaque.
Wittekind also recently won third place in a photo-essay contest, sponsored by the N.C. Bar Association, for her photograph of a group of ethnically diverse toddlers and the accompanying essay about how the U.S. Constitution gives both men and women equal rights, including the right to good day care.
Wittekind said that, for her, the most important thing she learned from her research about watersheds was that places are interconnected.
"I thought that maybe where we live has more impact, because we can see the water," she said, "but the people in cities have just as much impact as we do."
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