Three pupils at Park Primary School were awarded with gift cards after creating posters discouraging smokers from dropping their cigarette butts outside the school grounds.
Groundwork Caerphilly and Gwent Police have worked with the school to promote a butt-free zone and the posters made through the competition will encourage parents who smoke to dispose of their cigarettes in new bins outside the school.
Brogan Mills, aged 10, won the first prize and has had A3 posters made of her creation which will adorn the fences outside the school to remind smoking parents that dropping cigarette butts on the floor is paramount to littering and damages our environment.
Tiana Fortune and Jake Richards were also awarded gift cards for their posters while every other student who entered the competition received a goodie bag for their effort. Because of the high standard of entries, every poster has been laminated and will also be attached, alongside the winning design, on the school fences.
Janine Reed, an officer for Groundwork Caerphilly, who partnered with Gwent Police to develop the competition, said, “All the entries by the pupils were of a very high standard and we want to thank the students for their help in keeping Bargoed a clean and tidy place, free of cigarette butts.”
She continued, “Smoking is not just bad for your health, it damages the environment. Even after someone has finished a cigarette, if the butt is dropped on the floor it can affect surrounding wildlife. If swallowed, animals are unable to digest this litter and this can prove fatal.”
Bargoed Community Support Officer, Lisa Humphries, said: “We were really impressed by all of the competition entries that the children submitted. The posters have now been displayed around the school, and we hope that they act as a reminder to parents that they have a responsibility to keep the area litter free.”
The prizes were donated by the Greater Bargoed Communities First Partnership.
