As the drought worsened earlier this fall, we wanted to solicit and share your ideas for conserving water, to both inform and inspire our readers. To prime the pump, so to speak, we offered to give away a rain barrel for the best idea.

Picking a single winner from the approximately 200 entries was not easy. This week, we gave away two Rain King rain barrels, made in Smithfield for Rainwater Solutions of Raleigh.

The first barrel went to the students at Raleigh's North Ridge Elementary School, who during the record heat of August began using buckets to collect the condensation dripping from air conditioners on their mobile classrooms. They used the water for irrigation, keeping potted plants and small gardens on the school grounds from withering in the heat.

The students continued collecting water through the fall, as they were learning about the drought and water conservation in class. Even this late in the season, the air conditioners kick on from time to time, said fourth-grade teacher Cheryl Gourley.

"The afternoon sun just heats our trailers so," Gourley said.

Gourley's students, seven of whom carried the rain barrel to its new home outside one of the trailers, said it will make it easier to collect and store water. And the barrel's mesh lid, designed in part to keep mosquitoes from breeding, has another advantage: It's squirrel proof.

"Once there was a squirrel inside one of our buckets," said Jennifer Rich, 9. "Someone picked it up, and the squirrel did a back flip."

The other barrel went to Jewel Deane Suddath of Raleigh, who impressed us with her dedication.

Suddath, a retired English and creative writing teacher at Sanderson High School who once taught author David Sedaris, sets out large buckets, bowls, pans and casserole dishes to collect rainwater, then stores it in Mason jars and old Pepsi bottles. She uses the water to water her plants and keep her backyard birds happy.

She was pleased to receive a barrel.

"This is going to make it so much easier," she said.