By MARY CONSEUR
In an awards ceremony at the Middlebury firehouse Dec. 8, the Middlebury Volunteer Fire Department gave cash awards to four Middlebury school children for their winning entries in the 30th Annual Fire Prevention Poster Contest. First-place winners were Catherine Crowley, a fourth-grader at Middlebury Elementary School (MES), and Natalia Balarezo, a fifth-grader at Long Meadow Elementary School (LMES). Second-place winners were Madison Rowinsky, a fourth-grader at MES, and Nicholas Wiltshire, a fifth-grader at LMES.
First-place winners each received a cash award of $125. Second-place winners each received a cash award of $75. The winning posters were selected from among more than 250 entries from children in grades four and five at LMES and MES. Judges were Middlebury firefighters Mike Proulx, Mike Dayton and Dave Sanchez.
The annual Fire Prevention Poster Contest is a cooperative effort of the Office of State Fire Marshal, the Connecticut Fire Marshals Association, the Connecticut Public Fire Education Association and the Connecticut FAIR Plan (Fair Access to Insurance Requirements.) It is designed to educate children to improve fire safety and fire-prevention awareness. Last year more than 30,000 Connecticut students from more than 135 communities participated in the contest.
Crowley and Balarezo will go on to compete at the county level, and winners of that competition will compete at the state level. The state winner will receive a $1,000 savings bond and his or her poster will be displayed at the state capitol building next October during fire prevention month. The state winner will be announced in March at an awards luncheon to which all 32 finalists, their parents, teachers, principals and fire marshals will be invited.
Fire continues to be a leading cause of death and injury in the U.S. Every 2½ hours, someone is killed in a home fire and thousands more are injured each year. Children often are victims of residential fires that most often occur at night. Through fire-prevention education and community participation many of these fires can be prevented.
Children are likely to retain fire safety messages. They are a valuable link in the chain of communication, taking the lesson home and promoting fire-prevention measures to the family. This educational program hopes to increase fire safety and prevention awareness.
Deputy Fire Marshal Brian Proulx and the poster contest committee thank Region 15, LMES Principal Richard Gusenburg, MES Principal Lauren Feltz, the fourth- and fifth-grade teachers and all of the participating students for their enthusiastic artwork and creative thinking in this very important fire-prevention awareness program.
You must be logged in to post a comment.