Newton Citizen

Sims Elementary School students from left, third-grader Conner Johnson, third-grader Kara Simpson and third-grader Naomi Castor receive the prizes they won in a school-wide art contest sponsored by BAT Logistics. Other winners, not pictured, included first-grader Isabella Cooper, first-grader Tylen Ha and first-grader Taylor Harris.

A transportation broker, BAT Logistics specializes in lining up trucks and trains to move freight across the country and to Canada. But leave it to a group of elementary school students to imagine much more intriguing ways to travel.

BAT Logistics recently partnered with Sims Elementary School to hold an art contest which required students to draw any type of transportation they could envision. Transportation modes depicted by the children included skateboard, hot air balloon, airplane, rocket ship, jet ski, ocean liner and even covered wagon, a top winner in the contest.

"They came up with some really cool stuff," said Sims Elementary School art teacher Luci Roberts.

Nine winners in the school-wide contest won transportation-related prizes themselves including bikes, a skateboard, scooters and skates, donated by BAT logistics.

"I think it's wonderful that the company is willing to do this for the students," said Roberts. "We're a Title I school and a lot of our students would never get presents like this if it hadn't been for the company."

BAT Logistics Southeast region marketing and sales representative Cindy Moreno, who is also the parent of a Sims first-grader, conceived of the idea for the contest.

Each holiday season, the company adopts needy families in Nebraska, where the corporate office is located, and Moreno felt compelled to organize a similar effort in the Atlanta area.

"The whole point is to help families who don't have much," said Moreno.

Roberts said about 50 children participated in the contest. The five-year veteran educator used the competition as a teaching tool and required students to follow certain guidelines related to color theory in their drawings.

Roberts said the prizes for the art contest surprised her students and even moved one parent to tears.

"I'm just touched by the company's generosity," said Roberts.