TheDoingsClarendonHills

     But they proved to be a winning combination for 12-year-old Nick Leahy of Clarendon Hills, who took second place among sixthgraders in Metra’s second annual safety poster contest.

     Drawn with colored pencils, Nick’s poster warns people to keep their ears open near train tracks. It features a tyrannosaurus rex listening to an iPod and a pterodactyl listening to headphones. The poster reads: “Don’t become extinct.”

     The poster is 14 by 17 inches and took Nick about three weeks to make.

     “I worked on it three or four times a week,” Nick said.

     Nick was inspired to use dinosaurs after seeing pictures of them in one of his drawing books.

     “He’s taken a variety of art classes,” Lynn Leahy, Nick’s mother, said. “He’s been into it since he was little.”

     Nick heard about the contest from the Clarendon Hills Middle School art club.

     When Nick received a letter informing him that he had won, he was “very, very happy.”

     Metra received more than 1,500 entries from more than 100 schools this year. First-, second- and third-place winners were chosen from grades kindergarten through 12th.

     Nick plans to enter Metra’s contest next year, too.