Ceres kids send a winning breast cancer message from the heart

A beautiful candlelit image of Whitmore Charter School students forming a heart captured the hearts of Ceres firefighters, who awarded the school first place in its annual photo contest to promote breast cancer awareness.

At an already scheduled fire drill, appropriately enough, the Ceres Fire Department presented the student body with a trophy nearly as tall as the littlest kindergartners. But not before department Engineer Jason Cripe messed with the kids a bit. The Fire Department received a lot of great submissions for this, its second annual contest, he said over the public-address system as the kids stood behind the school. “Unfortunately, there could be only one winner,” he said, and it was hard for the firefighters to choose.

The department had planned to wait until the end of the day to announce the winner, he teased, but then asked the kids if they’d like to hear. His question was met with a roar of “Yeahhhhh!” An even louder cheer went up when the envelope was handed to Principal Davis Viss, who announced that the winner was … “Whitmore Charter School!”

Students chanted “Trophy, trophy, trophy” as firefighter Gregory Selvera carried it around for all to see.

The Fire Department holds the contest in October, open to all Ceres Unified School District schools. When it began last year, Cripe said, “We thought we’d maybe get pictures of a half a dozen kids standing in front of a sign.”

But the firefighters have been amazed at the effort and creativity the schools have put into their photographs. Thanks to Photoshop, the 10 submissions this year include kids standing with giant hearts, ribbons and words such as “Hope.” One this year had a superhero theme, Cripe said, and the kids looked as though they were on a “Batman” set, with spotlight beams cutting into the night sky.

Other than the messages “Let Your Spirit Shine” and “Never Lose Heart” being superimposed on it, Whitmore Charter’s shot is largely untouched. It was taken by Nick Showalter, assistant director of information technology for the school district, in the school’s darkened multipurpose room. All wearing pink, Whitmore Charter’s 440 students and 45 staff members held battery-powered votive candles. While the kindergartners formed a ribbon, the rest formed a heart around them.

Getting all the children in place – and staying put – and going around to remove each of the plastic tabs so the lights would work took a while. The shoot was about 45 minutes from start to finish.

But, everyone agreed, it was well worth it.

Of the Whitmore Charter submission and the other photos the Fire Department received, Cripe said, “The creativity is remarkable … really top notch.”

This story was originally published November 26, 2014 at 2:39 PM with the headline "Ceres kids send a winning breast cancer message from the heart."