Published: November 17, 2009 07:48 pm      

Chatsworth first-grader wins national Smokey the Bear contest

Darya Bryant is helping Smokey The Bear celebrate his 65th birthday.

A first-grader at Chatsworth Elementary School, Darya was one of five winners in the nationwide “Get Your Smokey On” photography contest. A photo collage of Darya, taken by her grandmother Judy Boring, appears briefly in a birthday tribute video on the Web site www.smokeybear.com. The video can be viewed on the site’s homepage.

The seven photos show Darya practicing the fire safety rules Smokey The Bear has preached since the 1940s. She’s shown with a shovel, a rake and a bucket of water to extinguish the embers, all with a vintage Smokey The Bear figurine tucked in the pocket of her overalls. The photos were taken at Boring’s cabin in the Cohutta Wilderness in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests. The shovel, the rake and the bucket weren’t props, Boring said.

“Those are things we use every day,” she said.

Smokey The Bear is the longest-running public service announcement campaign in U.S. history. The iconic image has helped educate millions of children and adults about the dangers of fire, warning them: “Only you can prevent forest fires.” Boring said she saw the contest online and thought the chances of winning were good.

The contest was sponsored by the Ad Council and Home Front Communications. Organizers wanted the photos to show how the subjects are practicing what Smokey The Bear preaches in the public service announcements, for example, “images of people with Smokey The Bear or practicing safe camping tips such as making sure fires are put out before leaving a camp site.” Images were judged on originality, technical excellence, composition, overall impact and artistic merit.

“I thought it was so cute,” Boring said. “I thought it would be a good thing to educate people about preventing forest fires. When I was growing up, Smokey the Bear was a big part of school and teaching children about the danger of forest fires. It seems nowadays you just don’t see as much of him as I did as a kid. I wanted to pass all of those lessons to Darya.”

Both grandmother and granddaughter were excited to hear they were among the contest winners.

“It just so happened that she was out of school that day for a teacher’s workday, I believe,” Boring said. “They called to tell us that she was one of the winners. She was jumping up and down, I was, too. We were both just like little kids. She was just so tickled about the whole thing.”

Darya, the daughter of Kasie Barrrett and Paul Bryant, got an extra surprise when she met with a reporter at the U.S. Forest Service office in Murray County last week. Smokey The Bear was there to congratulate her on being a contest winner.

“This is the best day of my life,” Darya said.