Sixth Grade SPARK! Students Bring Towhead Island’s Future to Life Through Logo Design Competition

Pictured to the left: The winners of the 2026 SPARK! Towhead Island Logo Competition. The team named “The Amazon Shoppers”, consists of students Lily and Tina, who proudly hold up shirts displaying their design.

MUSCATINE, Iowa – The Community Foundation of Greater Muscatine recently concluded the 2026 SPARK! Towhead Island Logo Design Competition, a student-centered program designed to help sixth grade students learn about Towhead Island while exploring marketing, logo design, teamwork, and community storytelling.

Finishing its sixth consecutive summer, SPARK (Summer Program for Arts, Recreation & Knowledge) is a full-day summer learning program offered through a partnership between the Muscatine Community School District and Aligned Impact Muscatine County (AIM). SPARK provides students with hands-on enrichment experiences in STEM, the arts, career exploration, and community-based learning, helping them discover new interests, build real-world skills, and make meaningful connections beyond the classroom.

Towhead Island, a 129-acre island positioned in the curve of the Mississippi River in downtown Muscatine, was gifted to the Community Foundation to support youth education, conservation, recreation, and community engagement.

Through this competition, students were invited to think creatively about how the island could become part of the connective tissue of the Muscatine community. Over the past few weeks, students learned about Towhead Island and discussed the role marketing can play in helping people understand and connect with a place. Exploring how color, symbols, text, and feeling can shape a logo’s message, students then worked in teams to turn their ideas into final designs and presentations explaining their creative processes.

The program concluded with a competition day on July 14, where students presented their final designs to volunteer judges. Each team explained the message behind its logo, their design choices, and how the logo reflected their vision for Towhead Island’s future.

The day also included a hands-on workshop with Muscatine Community College’s Culinary program, giving students the opportunity to learn more about the program and its incubator space housed within the Foundation’s building.

The winning logo was created by “The Amazon Shoppers” team, made up of Lily and Tina. Their design was selected because it showcased a clear connection to Towhead Island’s history, environment, and recreational possibilities. The logo includes references to the island’s natural features: wildlife, water, trees, outdoor activities, and the idea that there is “more to it than you think.”

The Community Foundation is proud of the creativity, teamwork, and courage students

demonstrated throughout the program. By learning about Towhead Island and sharing their

ideas through design, students helped bring fresh perspective to an important community

initiative and contributed to the ongoing conversation about the island’s future.

Thank you to the SPARK! coordinators, AIM staff members, Muscatine Community College

representatives, volunteer judges, and everyone who helped make this program and event

possible.

The gift of Towhead Island was made possible by the generosity of a donor through the Joe W. and Betty L. Rauch Memorial Fund.

For more information about Towhead Island, call Adrianne Towe at the Community Foundation of Greater Muscatine office at 563-264-3863 or visit our website at www.givinggreater.org.