Warren said her poster was dedicated to families who lost people to traffic crashes. Her slogan was, “You’d Click Your Belt If You Knew How It Felt … To Lose Someone You Love.” Her poster featured a heart with a seat belt around it.
Roberts’ poster, featuring glitter, suggested, “The Family That Clicks Together Sticks Together.”
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Mayor Pat Moeller presented the girls with proclamations honoring their posters and slogans.
“A couple of weeks ago, some of us adults learned one heck of a lot from all the third-grade champions who had seat-belt-slogan posters,” Moeller said. “They were really, really excellent. It was a tough job, but two of them were picked as champions. And every year we invite them to a council meeting.”
Hamilton Police Officer Kristy Collins runs the program each year with the district’s third-grade class. The poster winners win cash and a pizza party for their families.
“There are over a thousand third-graders,” Collins said. “So I narrow it down to 13 winners all together. And then out of the 13, I pick the top two out of that.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than half of teens (ages 13-19) and adults between the ages of 20 and 44 who died in crashes during 2014 were unrestrained when the wrecks happened.
“These young people really gave us a lesson,” Moeller said, “and I’m sure they’re telling their parents, in case they forget, make sure they clip their seat belt.”
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