By KELLY HANNON

Three Shirley Heim Middle School sixth-graders earned top honors in a statewide poster contest alerting drivers to the dangers of passing through a highway work zone.

"Life Behind the Cones and Barrels: How Roadway Workers Keep America Moving," was judged by Virginia Department of Transportation officials and sponsored by the American Traffic Safety Services Association Foundation, headquartered in Stafford County.

With more than 720 people killed in highway work zones every year, the posters are a reminder to drivers to follow safety precautions, said Patrick Conway, a national board member for the ATSSA Foundation.

"It's great that you're thinking about it, that you're talking about it," Conroy said, speaking to students at an award ceremony May 7.

The contest winners are Chyann Hooker, first place; Annie Embray, second place; Roger Evans, third place.

Hooker won $100 and a pizza party for her classmates, held at the school, while Embray won $50 and Evans won $25.

Winners also received a framed copy of their posters.

Chyann used colored pencils and Sharpie markers in bright colors to show a highway worker holding a "slow" sign while a Verizon truck and crane fix a telephone line near a road.

Chyann said she hopes drivers see her poster and know "they should slow down so nobody gets hurt."

She plans to use her $100 to buy books.

Annie used colored pencils to draw a realistic street scene with a broken pipe gushing water and blocking the road, ringed by orange traffic cones.

Roger used green and black colored pencils on a white background, drawing workers and drivers mingling in a construction area. The message "Be Safe in Work Zones" is stretched across the road horizon.

"I want to be an artist when I grow up," Roger said.

Each year, more than 6,700 students enter the national contest, which is open to grades kindergarten through six.

Shirley Heim art teacher Carol Coffman chose the contest as a project for all 128 sixth-grade art students because it drew on a subject many students in North Stafford are familiar with--road construction.

Also, it taught students to think about what elements make a good poster, Coffman said, such as design and style, plus the content of the message itself.

Winning poster designs can be viewed online at virginiadot.org/programs under "Work Zone Safety" and "Before."

Kelly Hannon: 540/374-5436
Email: khannon@freelancestar.com