EDISON — Sixty-four grade school students, who contributed artwork for the Middlesex County Sheriff’s calendar and safety activity books, were recognized in a ceremony held at the Middlesex County Police Training Center in Edison last month.
More than 200 students, parents, educators and family members attended. County Sheriff Mildred S. Scott presented awards to the students at the ceremony on June 13.
“I was so impressed with the quality and number of entries we received,” Scott said. “It is reassuring to know that our children are thinking about their own personal safety and the safety of others. They expressed their thoughts beautifully in words and pictures.”
Scott said she was also impressed by the turnout at the event, especially by the educators who gave up their own time to support their students.
In February 2017, Scott invited all Middlesex County grade school students to submit artwork for three Sheriff’s Office publications: Bicycle Safety, Personal Safety and the new 2017-2018 Calendar. The books are intended to provide safety tips to children on riding safely, traffic safety, stranger awareness, home security, injury prevention and other topics, as well as fun learning activities.
The Sheriff’s Office received more than 900 entries and selected 64 to be included in the books. The artwork and the safety tips in the books are 100 percent student’s work. There is also information that is written by safety experts. Five children received special recognition for their selection as Cover Art Winners, Inside Cover Art Winners and a winner for the most original drawing for each book. All other children received Honorable Mention awards for being in the books.
The cover winner award for the Bicycle Safety book was presented to Irene Liu of Campbell School, Metuchen and the Personal Safety cover award was presented to Stefania Leonardis of John Riley School, South Plainfield.
The Bicycle Safety inside cover artwork was presented to Aria Spinetti of John Marshall School, Edison. The Personal Safety inside cover artwork was presented to Shreya Raval of Martin Luther King School, Piscataway, and the most original artwork was presented to Sanjay Ravishankar of Kennedy Park School No. 24 in the Iselin section of Woodbridge.
The five students were awarded Target gift cards.
Honorable Mention Winner awards in the Bike Safety book were presented to Alyson Chan, Fantine Chirol, Kaitlyn Connors, Gianna Hernandez, Alison Kowalski, Anna Leon, Kailyn Means, and Ripley Wong, all of Metuchen, Mahazabin Akther, Sierra Deloach, Andrea Ladia, Shreya Raval, and Prisha Shah, all of Piscataway, Sarina Patel, Meher Somaiya, Kriti Srivastava, and Rahi Thaker, all of South Brunswick, and Bronte Driz, Giannah Obando, and Sara Sansare, all of Woodbridge.
Honorable Mention Winner awards in the Personal Safety book were presented to Namrata Anand, Jessica Basara, Bronte Driz, SaiKritika Gutti, Shelby Hilarczyk, Janae Li, Ava Patuto and Lila Ulmer, all of Woodbridge, Inaaya Abubakar, Shradha Burle, Suhavi Puar, and Manasa Venkataramana, all of Piscataway, Dina Bashir and Aaron Murray, of South Amboy, Stefania Leonardis, Amber Rose Olsen, Laylah Ruiz, and William Tombs, of South Plainfield, and Joe Duhme, Kaitlyn Hsueh, Hannah Mindler, Jack Murphy, and David Rivas, all of Metuchen.
Honorable Mention Winner awards for the 2017-2018 Calendar were presented to Kerina Cheng of South Plainfield, Jenna Hamza and Saha Mallepeddi, both of South Brunswick, Silvia Moreria, of South River, Krushi Patel, of North Brunswick, Navya Gobinathan, Sreshtha Mishra, Vincent Novak, Nidhi Reddy, and Arya Vishwakarma, all of Piscataway, Emily Jelleme and Elizabeth Lopez, both of Metuchen, Naya Mansukhani and Angelina Smolder, both of Woodbridge, and Ajit Pranav and Raj Rahul Vidhale, both of Edison.
The Sheriff’s Office Community Awareness Officers will distribute the books over the next two years at Health and Safety fairs, Community Days and School Assemblies throughout the county. During these events the officers speak to parents, grandparents and children from preschool age through high school with regard to the importance of personal safety, transportation safety and internet safety.
For more information on the Middlesex County Sheriff’s Office call 732-745-3382.
