Emily Wang from Holmes School took first place in Metra's Safety Contest with this poster entry.

Metra announced the winners of its annual Safety Contest designed to promote and reinforce railroad safety to keep children safe around trains. Holmes School student Emily Wang won first place for the first-grade entries and Clarendon Hills Middle School student Matt Stockmal was awarded second place for the seventh-grade entries.

Each year, Metra's Safety Contest invites students in grades K-12 throughout its six-county service area to submit poster and essay entries highlighting the importance of railroad safety. This year's contest theme was "Safety First: Look, Listen and Live." The agency received more than 5,000 student entries from nearly 250 schools throughout the region. Tasked with selecting the winners was a panel of 20 judges including government officials, representatives from safety and education advocacy groups, business and community leaders, members of the media and Metra representatives. Additionally, 600 members of the public participated in the Safety Poster Contest "People's Choice Award" voting at displays at each of Metra's downtown commuter stations.

The first-place poster designs will be featured as safety posters and distributed to more than 2,000 schools in Northeastern Illinois. The posters will also be featured in station displays, in Metra's 2012 safety calendar, on monthly tickets and on Metra's contest website and Facebook page. Winning safety essays will also be featured in the safety calendar, the Metra contest website and Facebook page.

First-place poster and essay contest winners receive a laptop computer, while second- and third-place poster contest winners receive $250 and $100 gift cards, respectively. The "People's Choice Award" winner receives a $250 gift card. Metra also recognizes the school with the most entries submitted in the poster contest. The top participating school receives a computer.