In celebration of NJ Bike and Walk to School Month, Greater Mercer TMA (GMTMA) announced the winners of its Safe Routes to School Bookmark Design Contest. Third through fifth graders in Mercer and Ocean County were asked to create a bookmark design with the theme “Write and draw about USING YOUR SENSES WHILE WALKING AND BIKING. What kind of things do you hear, touch, smell, or see?”
“Experiencing the environment is part of the fun of walking and biking and the students really captured this with their highly creative drawings and poems,” said Cheryl Kastrenakes, Executive Director of GMTMA. “It was so much fun to read their haikus and see what they observed on their walks.”
The Mercer County winners are Hema Gujjar, 3rd Grade student at Slackwood Elementary, Lawrenceville, NJ and Aleksandra Trzasko, 3rd Grade student at Slackwood Elementary, Lawrenceville, NJ.
The Ocean County winners are Farrah Mohamed 5th grade student at Veterans Memorial Elementary, Brick, NJ and Jimena Barrientos, 3rd grade student at, Hugh J. Boyd Jr. Elementary, Seaside Hights.
Each winner received a $50 gift card and had their bookmarks professionally printed. The winning bookmarks are being distributed at many Mercer and Ocean County schools and libraries.
GMTMA serves as the NJ Department of Transportation’s Safe Routes to School coordinator for Mercer County and works with schools, communities and PTOs to encourage more students to walk and bike to school safely and to improve the areas where it is not safe. If you would like more information about the Safe Routes to School Program please visit gmtma.org.