More than 50 students from Middlesex County were honored on June 10 for their artwork submissions for safety books that will be distributed across the county.
The cover winner award for the “Bicycle Safety” book was presented to Shreesaran Satapathy of Woodbridge, while the award for the inside cover artwork was presented to Faith Elliot Diaz of South River.
Honorable Mention awards went to Tara Kehair, Sabeen Murtaza, Shanmukhi Kannam angalam and Rithika Beerelli of Piscataway; Shruti Nadar of North Brunswick; Jillian Juhass of South Amboy; Sarah Silva, Bianka Ramirez, Barbara Oliveira, Cindy Marques and Laney Tamajon of South River; and Jonathan Slohoda, Alexsander Drahos, Arianna Magana and Shaunak Karve of Woodbridge.
For the “Personal Safety” book, the cover award was presented to Davin Kress of Woodbridge, while the award for the inside cover artwork went to Alexa Ramsani of Piscataway.
Honorable Mention winners were Maya Bryan of North Brunswick; Insiya Chitalwala, Danielle Cole, Snigdha Podugu and Hamshika Rajkumar of Piscataway; Tiffany Wen of South Amboy; Sasha Soffer and Lucas Van Aulen of Milltown; Gabrielle Green, Denise Bui and Emily Albrecht of South Plainfield; and Ashley Vincent, Angelina Smith, Jeffrey Trela, Arianna Magana, Aarya Dalal, Erica Wiguna and Jacob McCabe Woodbridge.
Anthony Velardo of Woodbridge received an award for the inside back cover artwork of both books.
For the 2015-16 Safety Calendar, Honorable Mention award winners were Ava Farmer, Adrienne Glant, D’Amoura McPherson and Isaiah Warrick of Piscataway; Miraj Ahmed of Old Bridge; Paige Fego, Georgia Fraser, Bridget Feeney, Jessica Craggan, Domonique Sharpe, Nathaly Rodriguez and Mike Zavala of South Plainfield; and Evan Hinkle, Chloe Monsanto, Victoria Hrabkovsky and Kayla Dejesus of Woodbridge.
“I was so impressed with the quality and the number of entries we received,” Midd lesex County Sheriff Mildred 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.”
The Sheriff’s Office 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.
In addition, the Community Awareness officers are certified child passenger safety technicians and assist parents with the proper installation of car seats for their children.