Ten-year-old Carley Felt says that when the fire truck pulled up in front of her home at 6:45 a.m. November 10, she could hardly contain her excitement. The ride to school in one of Plymouth’s fire engines was part of her prize for winning an annual poster contest run by the Plymouth Fire Department.
Each year, crews of firefighters visit elementary schools to give demonstrations and teach children valuable lessons on fire safety. This year’s lesson—“hear the beep where you sleep”—discussed the importance of testing fire alarms in and around one’s bedroom. This was to be the theme in which Carley and students in other classes based their posters for the contest.
A lover of drawing and painting, Carley drew inspiration for the poster from the classic children’s tale, The Princess and the Pea, positioning her princess on a stack of mattresses with one eye open as the smoke alarm in her bedroom sounds.
“It’s really classic and recognizable,” her mother, Heather, says. The poster succeeds in capturing the safety lesson and uses a vibrant range of color and textures—Carley’s idea—to stand out among others.
Heather says that her fire engine chauffeur was, next to the poster’s creation, the most fun part of the contest for Carley.
This year’s poster contest kicks off in September, with winners announced in October (entries are due October 17). See plymouthmn.gov for more details.
