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Energy safety calendar features Minnesota students’ drawings

MINNEAPOLIS - Drawings by three Minnesota elementary students have been chosen for inclusion in Xcel Energy’s 2003-04 Energy Safety Calendar, which features electric and natural gas energy safety-oriented artwork by kindergaten-through-sixth-grade students from across the company’s 12-state service territory.

Bailey Hullett of Faribault Middle School, Chelsea Simek of Central Elementary School in Norwood Young America and Savanna Heidenriech of St. John The Baptist School in New Brighton are among 13 students whose artwork was chosen for the calendar, which features a safety-related drawing for each month of the year and on its cover. The students’ drawings were chosen from 4,500 entries.

The full-color calendars are being distributed to 28,000 K-6 teachers across the company’s service areas in Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

The annual calendar contest is sponsored by Xcel Energy’s community affairs department to help teach children about electricity and natural gas safety. In drawing pictures for the calendar, students explore such safety issues as avoiding contact with high-voltage power lines, detecting natural gas leaks, underground electric and natural gas line safety, home electricity safety and holiday lighting safety.

Following are the themes explored by each Minnesota artist as well as the month each drawing appears.

• Hullett, November: “Water and electricity don’t mix.”
• Simek, February: “If you smell gas get out really fast!”
• Heidenriech, August: “If you see a line down, call Xcel Energy.”