Young artists treated to lunch, Palmer Police Department tour

PALMER - Lunch, ice cream and a tour of the police station were the rewards for three talented Sherrod Elementary School artists Friday.

Every year, Sherrod has a poster contest as part of Red Ribbon anti-substance-abuse week.

"Red Ribbon Week is in the fall and we focus on staying clean and living healthy," said Mat-Su Borough School District Spokeswoman Catherine Esary.

Palmer Police Department helps select a winner from each of the school's three grade levels and then takes them out to lunch and for a tour of the police station, and then to Dairy Queen for ice cream.

"I don't know if anyone knows how long it's been going on," Sherrod's school nurse Faith Hundley said. "They've been coming over for, I bet, more than 20 years."

Hundley said she'd been at the school for 14 years and the contest was a tradition when she showed up. Cmdr. Tom Remaley with the Palmer Police Department said he doesn't know how long the tradition had been in place either.

Friday, the three winners stood in a row, smiling and holding up their winning entries as they posed for pictures in the school's lobby and waited for their ride to the Noisy Goose café.

"It's ‘The Wizard of Oz,'" fourth-grade winner Maria Beck said, describing her poster. "Dorothy and her friends are asking the Wicked Witch to not do drugs."

Beck said she likes the movie and just thought it was a good idea.

Next to her, fifth-grade winner Jolie Manier said she drew on her affection for chipmunks for inspiration, which bore the slogan "Drugs are Nutty"

"There's a little guy who turned into a nut because he did drugs," Manier said, pointing to a section of her poster.

Last but not least, third-grader Sophie Wright said she likes horses and drew one for her winning entry. The animal is running toward a rainbow and away from a storm cloud raining onto a pile of drugs and alcohol.

"The horse is choosing the right path," Wright said.

Hundley said this was the first year she could remember in which at least one boy didn't win.

She said the contest generates a lot of posters for the judges to go over.

"Almost 100 percent of the kids in the school participate," she said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at Andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.