A Poster Win For Police Support
The competition, organized by the OPP recruitment section to attract youth to the force, involved Grade 3 students from more than 200 classes in schools across Ontario who were asked to make movie posters showing how they feel about police officers.
Whitmarsh, a student at Beckwith Public School in Carleton Place, designed a poster that features OPP cars, boats and helicopters, along with sayings like, "They will come and help," and, "The OPP saves lives."
She said she used brightly coloured bubble letters to make the phrases stand out.
Her poster will be featured along with 13 others in the 2011 Youth Reflections on Policing calendar. Four thousand copies of the calendar will be distributed across the province this fall.
Whitmarsh was told of her second-place finish by an OPP officer in front of her entire class. The precocious redhead said she's never been so excited in her life.
"I was so happy I was shaking," she said. "All my friends told me I did a good job... I felt really special."
For her calendar-spot-winning art, Whitmarsh got to go for a ride in an OPP cruiser. She even got to hold the radar gun and turn on the flashing lights.
"No one gets to do that!" she said. "It's been so awesome."
Whitmarsh wants to be a teacher when she grows up but said she hopes her poster does what it's supposed to do -- get kids interested in joining the OPP. "They do such awesome things," Whitmarsh said.
August 28, 2010
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