The City of Gainesville’s Department of Water Resources is accepting submissions for their Elementary Fire Hydrant Design contest, in which the three winning entries will have their designs painted on a city fire hydrant.
All elementary school students in Hall County, regardless of if they attend county, city or homeschools, are invited to participate. Students can enter by printing off the fire hydrant template at Gainesville.org, then coloring and designing the hydrant. Contest packets can also be picked up from the Department of Water Resources through their drive-through service.
Designs can be submitted either by mail or by sending a picture to the Department of Water Resource’s Facebook page @GainesvilleH2O.
In addition to having their design recreated on a hydrant, winners will receive a pizzeria gift card and an award ceremony at their school.
The deadline to submit entries is April 13th.
The contest is part of the city’s effort to raise awareness for National Drinking Water Week May 3rd-9th, which promotes public awareness of safe drinking water.
Kristen Redmon, Water Conservation Specialist for the Department of Water Resources, said the hydrants designated for painting are strategically placed in heavily populated areas to serve as reminders of the special week.
“These three winning hydrants will be visible for everybody in the City of Gainesville as they pass them by,” said Redmon. “And they’ll be up as long as they last!”
Redmon said the plan is to hold unveiling ceremonies of the painted hydrants for the public during Drinking Water Week. But if current shelter in place orders continue, then the unveilings will be streamed on Facebook.
Redmon said she hopes the contest will give students an opportunity to show their creativity and distract them from current situations regarding COVID-19.
“We are really hoping to just brighten anybody’s day who just wants to do some arts and crafts,” said Redmon. “We strategically connected that to our upcoming Drinking Water Week so at the same time you’re having fun, it’s also being connected to the students that it’s about drinking water.”
A link to the city’s webpage regarding the contest, including the hydrant template, is located here.
