Hudson kids win in fire safety poster contest

HUDSON COUNTY – Three Bayonne and one Jersey City student have won awards in the 2012 Fire Safety Poster Contest.
New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) Acting Commissioner Richard E. Constable, III today announced that Alissa May Garilao of Bayonne is the grand prize winner of the New Jersey Fire Safety Poster Contest for the 2011-2012 school year. The poster contest is cooperatively organized by the DCA’s Division of Fire Safety and the New Jersey Fire Prevention and Protection Association.
“The goal of the poster contest was to encourage fire safety awareness in the home and Alissa’s poster accomplishes that,” said Acting Commissioner Constable. “Her wonderful artwork and the important message behind it will now be seen in public buildings around New Jersey. I congratulate her on a job well done.”
Garilao, who is in the seventh grade at Henry E. Harris School in Bayonne, beat out approximately 10,000 other contestants and six other division winners from across New Jersey. Her poster will now be distributed throughout New Jersey carrying the message of “Protect Your Family “From Fire,” which was the theme of the 2011-2012 contest.
About 5,000 copies of the winning poster will be printed, compliments of Atlantic City Electric and its Emergency Services Partnership Program. Other major sponsors include the New Jersey Chapter of the American Fire Sprinkler Association, the New Jersey Chapter of the National Association of Fire Equipment Distributors, and the Joshua Marcus Group. The contest’s seven division winners received laptop computers and printers.
“Our student artists have once again combined their creativity with a solid fire prevention message to remind everyone that preventing fire is the best way to protect loved ones,” said William Kramer, State Fire Marshal and Acting Division of Fire Safety Director.
Along with Garilao, Xavier Marquez, a second grader from John M. Bailey School in Bayonne, Morgan Zygmund, senior at Holy Family Academy in Bayonne, and Christian Zapata, a fourth grander in Jersey City Public School Number 11 won.