Pennsylvania Student Wins EPA Sun Safety Poster Contest, Don't Fry Day Coming Up

The winner of the 2009 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency SunWise with SHADE national sun safety poster contest is 13-year old Christoffer Crowley of Bernville, Berks County, Pa.

 

Christoffer's poster received more than 650 of the 5,000 votes cast online between April 20 and May 10.

 

His artwork showed girls talking about one’s unhealthy relationship with the sun. As the poster contest winner, Christoffer will receive a trip to Disney World for his six family members, a WeatherBug Tracking Station, and mimio smart board for a school of his choice.

 

The contest is co-sponsored by the SHADE Foundation of America, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and WeatherBug Schools. The annual contest asks children to craft catchy messages to help prevent skin cancer which strikes more than one million Americans every year. More people will be diagnosed with skin cancer this year than breast, prostate, lung, and colon cancer combined.

 

“We’re honored Christoffer won this year’s sun safety poster contest,” said his mother, Faith Crowley. “As a home school, we have to cover safety every semester. Teaching my children about the sun through the poster contest made learning fun. We’ll be donating the weather tracking station to a local school.”

 

“Congratulations to Christoffer and his family,” said Drusilla Hufford, director of EPA’s Stratospheric Protection Division. “He demonstrated a tremendous amount of talent and originality in creating his poster. I’m sure he and his family will be showing off their SunWise skills while they visit Disney World.”

 

“Christoffer is the first Pennsylvanian to win the poster contest,” said Shonda Schilling, founder and president of the SHADE Foundation. “His efforts, and those of the other 6,000 participating children, have educated thousands of Americans about how to be safe in the sun.”

 

The annual contest is a collaborative effort to teach children ways to protect their skin and eyes from overexposure to the sun’s ultraviolet radiation. More than 6,000 posters from 38 states were received this year. Since the contest’s start seven years ago, more than 80,000 posters have been submitted.

 

EPA is participating in this year’s contest through its SunWise Program, an environmental and health education program that teaches children and their caregivers how to protect themselves from overexposure to the sun.

 

The SHADE Foundation of America is dedicated to the eradication of melanoma through the education of children and the community in the prevention and detection of skin cancer and the promotion of sun safety.

 

The WeatherBug Schools Program provides school teachers nationwide with a program allowing them to use current and historical weather conditions in interactive, online lessons and activities that use data from their own weather station or from any of the 8,000 weather stations and 1,500 cameras on the WeatherBug Schools Network.

 

Don’t forget to slap on a hat this Memorial Day weekend, and every day, in commemoration of the first-ever

 

Don’t Fry Day—a national sun safety day.