By Alex Holwerda

Special to the Sentinel-Tribune

Penta Career Center put on a floral arrangement competition in the Home and Garden Building at the Wood County Fair on Friday.

“This is our third year of the Wood County Youth Challenge,” said Jody Germann, Penta’s horticulture instructor. “What we have is a competition for both younger youth and older youth, where they actually compete in a floral design competition, and they’ll create their arrangement. Then they get judged here on the spot and get to take them home.

“When we’re looking at the composition of an arrangement, we’re looking at how the arrangement works together. Colors, shapes, sizes, textures and how the students choose to put it all together is how the arrangement is going to be judged. They look at it as a whole, completed product and how well it holds up against other designs in a traditional floral-type setting.”

The youth floral challenge is big in Lucas County as well. The competition is known as the “Design on the Spot” design competition. About 50 participants from Lucas County normally participate in the competition. The Horticulture Program at the Penta Career Center spreads the entire range of the Horticulture industry.

“We’re grateful for the opportunity to come out to the Wood County Fair. We have a full-service flower shop, where we work on community based-educational projects,” Germann said. “We have a greenhouse where we grow our own plants, along with a landscape department that works outside and does landscaper-related activities in and around the school.”