Hundreds Gather in San Ramon for Poster Contest Awards

Announcement, photo submitted by Town of Danville:

Over 350 students and community members flocked to Dougherty Valley High School’s Performing Arts Center in San Ramon this week for the 11th annual Street Smarts Storybook Poster Contest Awards Ceremony. The March 11, 2015, event showcased the creativity of 547 students who submitted poster entries that focused on correct procedures while riding in the bus and crossing the street.

This is the eleventh year of the San Ramon Valley Street Smarts Poster Contest, which is sponsored by Sunset Development Company. For the first three years, students submitted posters on various traffic safety themes. Then in 2008, the contest shifted to a Storybook Poster Contest. Local author Dana Mentink writes a fun story for elementary school-aged children that teaches important traffic safety information. In this year’s book, “The Amazing Abracadabra Bus Adventure,” elementary students take a magical trip to San Francisco. In the story, no matter where their adventure takes them they always remember to use correct safety procedures while riding the bus and crossing the street. For the contest, children choose one to three pages to illustrate, in the hopes that their drawing will be chosen for inclusion in the storybook.

At the March 11 Awards Ceremony, this year’s eleven winners were announced. Before the event, all poster submissions were on display, and the proud artists posed with their work. The Awards Ceremony began at5:00 p.m., with Chief Communication Officer, Contra Costa County Office of Education, Terry Koehne, serving as Master of Ceremonies. The winning artists, listed below, were announced by San Ramon Mayor Bill Clarkson, Danville Mayor Mike Doyle, Contra Costa County Supervisor Candace Andersen, San Ramon Valley Unified School District Board President Denise Jennison, and Sunset Development Company Senior Vice President of Planning Chris Truebridge:

2015 Storybook Poster Contest Winners

• Cover Julianne Park - Grade 4, Coyote Creek Elementary School
• Page 1 Preethika Balakumar, Grade 4, Quail Run, Elementary School
• Page 2 Jasmine Wong, Grade 3, Live Oak Elementary School
• Page 3 Leon Khoshnevis, Grade 4, Quail Run Elementary School
• Page 4 Alexandra Ren, Grade 5, Montevideo Elementary School
• Page 5 Melinda Shu, Grade 3, Montevideo Elementary School
• Page 6 Noor Gowra, Grade K, Montevideo Elementary School
• Page 7 Daphne Chan, Grade 4, Tassajara Hills Elementary School
• Page 8 Sarah Han, Grade 5, Quail Run Elementary School
• Page 9 Darpan Singh, Grade 4, Hidden Hills Elementary School
• Page 10 Gianna Wong, Grade 5, Live Oak Elementary School

During the presentation, the speakers shared important information on Street Smarts traffic safety education with the audience, including the following:

· In 2014, Street Smarts delivered 14 after-school bike rodeos at SRVUSD elementary schools, reaching between 50 and 200 students per rodeo. And more bike rodeos are planned for this spring.

· During the 2014–2015 school year, Street Smarts also hosted traffic safety assemblies at 11 elementary schools, serving over 7,000 students.

· Street Smarts is reaching thousands of children in the San Ramon Valley, making our community a safer place, and helping our children make safer choices.

The storybook is distributed to thousands of San Ramon Valley children as a tool to teach traffic safety. “Since 2008, over 40,000 copies of Street Smarts storybooks have been given to local children,” stated Jill Bergman, Economic Development Manager. “That’s the power of having a Storybook Poster Contest instead of just a Poster Contest -– not only do the participants learn the traffic safety concepts, but then those concepts are shared with the thousands of other children who read the book.” Starting the week of March 23, 2015complimentary copies of the storybook can be picked up at the Danville and San Ramon Community Centers and the Danville, San Ramon, and Dougherty Station public libraries.