Two Camas students win national awards

Two Camas students received national awards for their entries in the School Bus Safety Week poster contest. The theme was “Be Smart — Be seen, I wait in a safe place!”

Thousands of school districts in more than 40 states participate in local and state-level competitions to select art work that depicts school bus safety related themes, and encourages and promotes school bus safety.

The winning posters are used to promote the themes.

This year, two of the state winners went on to compete at the national level and each took third place in their division.

The students are Kandai Shimada, a sixth-grader at Skyridge Middle School, and Shalaka Deshpande, a second-grader at Grass Valley Elementary.

As national division winners, they’ll each receive $50, in addition to a combined $100 each in cash prizes for the state and regional competitions.

They were honored by the Camas School Board at a recent meeting.

Shimada’s choir teacher, Brenda Sappington, had the following to say about him.

“He is very well-liked, polite and respectful. I really enjoy having him in class.”