Project SNOW Holds Walkathon To Raise Awareness for Snow Safety

Project SNOW (Safeguarding Neighborhoods Over Winter), is a community problem solving team made up of 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students in the town of Canton, Massachusetts. On October 22, 2017, we organized a walkathon to raise awareness about winter safety. Project SNOW is a very dedicated team, which would like to have similar events, all containing the same purpose, ie., to raise awareness about winter safety. “Way too many people get injured in the winter. It’s not right,” said Fatima Sidibay, a 6th grader at the Galvin Middle School. “Some people hope that the problem of winter injuries gets solved”, said Pranav Addanki, a 5th grader at the John F. Kennedy Elementary School. “But we really want to do something about it”.

“We had two tragic incidents in the Winter of 2015 where an elementary student and a beloved coach were killed when the tree branches fell on them. We want to raise awareness about the danger of heavy snow on branches and to look out for tree branches that are too close to power lines. We will take pictures of these branches and call the power company to cut it down before it hurts somebody,” says Anthony Wang, 5th grader at JFK Elementary.

Senator Walter F. Timilty and Selectman Thomas W. Theodore participated in the event, as well as Canton Fire Chief Charles Doody and Canton Police Chief Ken Berkowitz. They encouraged us to keep working on being aware and keeping Canton safe during winter.

Project SNOW hopes to have many more events in the future, and raise awareness about winter safety. “We want to help senior citizens, as they may not be able to shovel snow by themselves, and help kids because they might get hurt walking on icy roads. We would also like to save trees from falling on top of power lines and cars and houses, and save animals from the dangers they face outside in winter”, says Disha Nayak, 6th grader at GMS.

Project SNOW would like to thank you for all your support along the way and everyone encouraging us to help Canton and other towns become a safer environment. This event was organized by the Project SNOW team: Pranav Addanki, Nishka Baduamanda, Siya Bais, Ishita Jaiswal, Sreerama Jonnala, Rhodes Lee, Disha Nayak, Russell Shea, Fatima Sidibay, Isabella Siu, Anika Valluri, and Anthony Wang.

If you want to donate to Project SNOW, please visit our GoFundMe page at https://www.gofundme.com/ProjectSNOW1718. All the donations will be used to buy supplies to take care of animals at the animal shelter and also valuable trees in Canton during the winter season. Donations will also be used to buy heated mats for the senior center and other senior citizens in need.