My "Protecting Our Pets" Poster Contest

Hello students, this is Makhi Ettienne-Modeste, your 2022 Connecticut's Kid Governor. I am excited to write about my “Protecting Our Pets” Poster Contest! When I ran for Kid Governor, one of the platform points I was most excited about was raising awareness about animal abuse. I thought the best way to do this was by encouraging students to create posters that raise awareness of showing kindness towards companion animals. In order to achieve this platform point -- the second point of my three-point plan -- I got some help from my friends at the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Children and Families. Partnering with the Connecticut Democracy Center, these state agencies helped me to launch my poster contest!

Me and Cabinet members Madelyn, Samantha, Satvik, and Elizabeth reviewing some of the posters!

The rules for my poster contest were simple:

• Participation was open to all 5th grade students in Connecticut
• Student artists had to create their work on a white piece of 8.5x11" paper using colored pencils, crayons, paint, or markers
• Each poster had to have a short description written by the student explaining their artwork
• And finally, each poster had to answer this question: How can kids show kindness towards pets and companion animals at home or in shelters?

It was up to my Cabinet and I to pick thirteen finalists, and I worked with staff from the Department of Children and Families and Department of Agriculture to select the winner. It wasn't an easy job! First of all, everyone's artwork was amazing! I really appreciated all of the hard work and time everyone put into their submissions. And we had a lot of posters to consider -- 60 students submitted a poster design! Also the descriptions that people put into were fantastic. I admired how people knew so much about animal cruelty and put a lot of thought into their descriptions. My Cabinet made some very difficult choices to narrow it down to a top thirteen, and picking a winner was way harder than I thought it would be. I can't wait for everyone to see the winning poster later this month! And I would also like to congratulate the winner of the contest, your art was amazing.

I hope that this poster contest makes people think about how to show kindness to companion animals and pets. I hope that everyone will remember that you can always choose to be kind to animals. One of the best ways to show kindness to companion animals is to respect their space. This is something I will talk about in my next blog post, along with other lessons I learned from my "Protecting Our Pets" educational program!

Remember to treat animals with kindness and P.O.P. (Protect Our Pets)!

Makhi Ettienne-Modeste

2022 Kid Governor 
John F. Kennedy School

Windsor