Her teacher showed a passion for the Earth that she’d never seen before. “He had been teaching us all year,” Terzian said of her science teacher, “all of the different problems and solutions we have to do on Earth in our time. I wanted to express that to other people through poetry.” Terzian and two other Santa Barbara County residents were awarded for their submissions to the “Why Earth Day Matters” poetry contest sponsored by the Wildling Museum of Art & Nature in Solvang. The Wildling Museum organized the poetry competition this year, and the museum staff received more than 40 entries by 25 local writers.