MONTPELIER — Seven Bristol Elementary School third-grade students attended a celebration ceremony with the rest of the statewide winners and runners-up of the annual Fire Safety Poster Contest on Friday, Nov. 6. The 13 winning posters will be featured in the Vermont Division of Fire Safety’s 2016 Fire Safety Calendar.
This year is the 25th anniversary of the Fire Safety Calendar Poster Contest, and in celebration the ceremony was held in the House Chambers of the Vermont Statehouse in Montpelier. For the first time the 13 runners-up were also invited to the ceremony to receive their honorable mentions. All the students sat in the front seats of the House, with a placard announcing their place of honor set on the desk in front of them.
This contest is open only to third-grade Vermont students, and the 2016 calendars will be distributed to every third-grader in the state. This year there were almost 1,100 submissions sent in by 71 schools from around the state. Each of the 13 winners received a Vermont Teddy Bear in full firefighter’s uniform, a certificate, and a bag of fire safety items that also included a Ben & Jerry’s gift certificate. The runners-up each received the bag of fire safety items and a certificate. All the participants had a photo op with both Sparky the Fire Dog and Smokey the Bear.
Congratulations to BES students Esme Visco-Lyons, who won for January; Hayden Lutz, the winner for March; Riley Friend, the winner for April; and Allison Wells, the winner for June. Congratulations also to Addison Hineman, who was runner-up for the cover; Zoey Vaughan, runner-up for August; and Kennedy Denecker, runner-up for September. The honorable mention entries will also be included in the calendar.
During October, which is Fire Safety Month, fire safety is taught to third-graders in the regular classroom, in the art room and in health and physical education at Bristol Elementary School. The students’ posters were created in art class with visual art teacher Deb Mager Rickner.