“The Choices You Make Are What Make You” was the theme for Chautauqua Alcohol & Substance Abuse Council’s Alcohol Awareness Month poster contest.

There were nearly 200 entries from students in third through 12th grades for the contest. As students designed their posters with this theme in mind, they had the opportunity to be creative in depicting positive alternatives to underage drinking. State Assemblyman Andrew Goodell, R-Jamestown, spoke at the ceremony about the importance of the contest theme and congratulated all of the students for participating in the contest. He also thanked them for providing posters to hang in the hallways of his Albany office.

Britta Watkins was named the grand prize winner for the 18th annual Chautauqua Alcohol and Substance Abuse Council Alcohol Awareness Month Poster Contest. The Maple Grove eighth-grader beat out 12 fellow finalists and 187 total entrants to win the prize.

Chautauqua County Sheriff James Quattrone, Amy Rohler, executive director of the United Way of Southern Chautauqua County, Jose Quinones-Visot of Chautauqua Tapestry, and Lydia Thompson, CASAC youth board member judged the finalists’ posters based on the impact of their messages, integration of the theme, originality and design.

First place winners are Emery Watkins, fourth grade, Bemus Point Elementary School; Emilee Ramirez, seventh grade at Dunkirk Middle School, and Raylynn Digirolamo, 11th grade at Southwestern High School.

Second place winners are Anderson Francisco Felipe, Dunkirk School 5, Owyn Darrell-Sterbak, seventh grade, Fredonia Middle School, Alaina Perrin, 11th grade, Sherman Central School, and Marcus Fredrick, 10th grade, Chautauqua Lake Central School.

Third place winners are Lucy Brown, fifth grade, Southwestern Elementary, and Mika Walters, 11th grade, Southwestern High School.

Honorable mention awards went to Reese Trippy, fourth grade, Dunkirk School 7, and Arehlyn Pattison, sixth grade, Panama Central School.

Each of the 12 finalists received t-shirts, ribbons, cash prizes, and the grand prize poster will be framed courtesy of Jamestown Frame and Glass.