Texas 4th Grader Wins
Energy-Saving Billboard Contest

Former Football Star, Chad Hennings, Presents Prize

Former Dallas-based football star, Chad Hennings, presented a $1,000 check to fourth-grade science student, Kate Kiely. Hennings, Kiely and the winning design will appear on billboards in the Dallas area during January and February.

Winning the contest came as a surprise to Kiely. She found out when it was announced in front of nearly 90 of her classmates during a school assembly at Big Springs Elementary School, part of the Richardson Independent School District, Garland, Texas. Melissa Smith, Big Springs Elementary fourth-grade science instructor, is one of the teachers in Dallas and Fort Worth who brought the Switch It! program into her classroom.

Click on the children’s names in the story to see their winning designs.

Kiely's winning billboard design features a light bulb named Larry who encourages others to, "Be Bright and Turn off the Light!"

Runners up in the program will each receive two energy-saving light bulbs and four movie tickets. Runners up are fourth graders: Emma Miller, Seymour Elementary School, Seymour Texas; Heather Lo, Big Springs Elementary School, Garland, Texas; and Rachel Bui, Jamie Griffin and Joy Siler, Corey Elementary School, Arlington, Texas.

Click on the Grand Prize winning billboard design and each of the designs of the five runners up to see their energy-saving messages.

The Billboard Contest was the final part of a three-part energy education and energy-saving curriculum called Switch It!  The Switch It! program provided hands-on lessons in energy conservation. The program was sponsored by Commerce Energy, a deregulated retail energy provider, and was designed jointly with Young Minds Inspired, an award-winning specialist in the creation of in-school curriculum-based programs.

More than 1,700 schools in the Dallas / Fort Worth area received the Switch It! program for first through fourth grades. The program was kicked off with visits from Hennings to J.N. Ervin Elementary School in Dallas and South Hills Elementary School in Fort Worth on October 9.

Larry the Lightbulb is a registered trademark of Portland General Electric.