King George Public School Grade 5 student Asiah Tatsu came up with a winning design that caught the eye of the Chatham-Kent Police Service Crime Prevention and Community Safety Officers.
A plaque presented to Tatsu for the winning design for the 2015-2016 Values, Influences and Peers (VIP) t-shirt design contest was presented by the Optimist Club of Chatham, and Special Constables Tamara Meredith and Randi Hull of the Crime Prevention and Community Safety Section of the Chatham-Kent Police.
A total of 39 schools across Chatham-Kent are participating in the Values, Influences and Peers program this year. Ten of the schools in Chatham are sponsored by the Optimist Club of Chatham, whose motto is “A Friend of Youth.”
T-Shirt sponsors throughout Chatham-Kent include Blenheim, Bothwell, Chatham, Wallaceburg and Wheatley Optimist Clubs, Bothwell Legion Branch 252, Merlin Knights of Columbus, Merlin Kinsmen & Merlin Legion Branch 465, Ridgetown Kiwanis, Theamesville Sertoma and LaSertoma, Tilbury Legion Branch 206, and the Wallaceburg Knights of Columbus.
Members of each organization attend VIP graduations, present students with a t-shirt, congratulate them, and encourage them to be good citizens of our community.
The Values, Influences and Peers program has been very effective in establishing community-police relationships over the years. Lessons taught to students, such as shoplifting awareness, victims and vandals, the dangers of drugs and bullying and the laws are preventive in nature and allow students to evaluate the consequences of negative behaviour before they are caught up with it.
