STUDENTS' ARTWORK BOUND FOR BOTTLES, 2006 CALENDARS METROPOLITAN PICKS CHILDREN'S DRAWINGS.

Byline: Eric Leach Staff Writer

Award-winning artwork by 14 Southland students is being displayed on the labels of water bottles produced for the Metropolitan Water District, while the work of 36 others will be showcased in MWD's 2006 calendar.

There were initially thousands of entries from Southern California, which eventually led to 214 finalists and 50 selections for the water bottles and calendar.

The Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, which serves the communities of Calabasas and Agoura Hills, had the work of three students selected for the calendar, and two were selected from Camarillo and one from Moorpark.

The students did their artwork last year when they were in elementary school, so some of them have gone on into middle school this year.

From Las Virgenes Unified School District, winners were Kevin Adams, who was in the third grade at Sumac Elementary school when he did his poster; Liz Itrin, who was in the fifth grade at Chaparral Elementary School; and Inez Lam, from the fifth grade at Yerba Buena Elementary.

The Pleasant Valley School District winners were Shannon Smith, from the fourth grade at Descanso School; and Arianna Redondo, from the fourth grade at University Preparation School.

From the Moorpark Unified School District, a piece was selected by Rachel Hess, who was a fifth-grader at the Flory Academy.

Adams' poster showed an overflowing bucket with the slogan, ``Don't overflow it, or you'll blow it.''

``It made me feel really good that I was one of the winners,'' said Adams, who lives in Agoura Hills and is now a fourth-grader at Sumac. ``I think water conservation is really important. It's a big part of life. Without it, we wouldn't be here.''

Jeff Reinhardt, manager of customer service and public affairs for the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, said there were 2,600 student entries from schools in the Las Virgenes district alone.

``We have so many good entrants from the contest that we are also doing a calendar that we will distribute locally,'' he said. ``We're just blown away by the level of participation and the quality of the artwork. ... We're very pleased we had three winners selected,'' by the MWD.

A public exhibit of all 50 of the framed student artworks selected by the MWD was on display at Metropolitan's downtown Los Angeles headquarters, and will now travel to participating member agencies for one-week displays. The exhibit schedule will be posted at Metropolitan's Web site, www.mwdh2o.com, under ``Education Programs.''

The works, which illustrate water appreciation and conservation messages, were selected in the annual ``Water Is Life'' poster contest for public and private school students, co-sponsored by Metropolitan's member agencies and retail water agencies throughout the region.

Eric Leach, [phone]

eric.leach(at)dailynews.com