“Let’s clean The Ville, I’ll help if you will.”

That’s the first-place slogan in this year’s effort to nab top honors in the Louisiana Garden Club Federation’s annual Cleanest City Contest. It was penned by 3rd-grader Blair Theriot, who is in Rachel Dugan’s class at Trinity Catholic.

The city will be judged by members of the federation around 3 p.m. on Tuesday, March 29. The judges, listed as Betty Foret, Teeter Longtain, Sepha Guidry, Alma Ebel and Mary Jane Peters, will be looking at the following criteria:

•Approaches to the city;

•Public buildings;

•Parks and cemeteries;

•Businesses;

•Schools, hospitals or nursing homes, fire station and residences;

•Streets, sidewalks, neutral ground, vacant lots;

•A scrapbook showing community involvement, documenting improvements and presenting overall impressions of cleanliness.

St. Martinville is being judged in District III, Category F, with Scott, Youngsville and Patterson.

The annual Trash Bash will be this Saturday, March 26, with volunteers gathering at the Maison Duchamp, corner of Main and Evangeline Boulevard, starting at 9 a.m. (Call Glenda Sonnier at 394-2235 for more information.) Refreshments will be served and participants will receive a T-shirt with Blair Theriot’s winning slogan on it.

Other winning entries in the slogan contest were:

•“Be all that you can be, keep our city trash free” – Connor Durand, grade 3, Trinity Catholic (Rachel Dugan), 2nd place;

•”Clean the world for a better tomorrow” – Melissa Vuong, grade 7, Trinity Catholic (Shelly Latiolais), 3rd place;

•”We love our St. Martinville Community so please let’s keep it litter free” – Kenny James, grade 2, Trinity Catholic (Ange Latiolais), honorable mention.