Online voters helped the Pineridge Rail Blockers earn second place winners in Operations Lifesaver's Off the Rails contest for the English-speaking portion.
The team consisted of Simon Bellis, Kaedyn Bond, Kate Lindsay and Brandon Mah from Mrs. Flaten's Grade 5 class. Both Mah and Bellis said they were surprised when they found out they had won second place.
"I didn't think we were going to win, or make it into the top five ... it was pretty crazy how many people voted for us everyday. It was cool," said Bellis.
"Everyone in the school was very supportive," Lindsay said, with Bond adding the win was very exciting.
"I thought our project was really good. I thought it should have won first place."
Sheryl Sadorski, a learning resource teacher and part-time principal of Pineridge who helped students with the project, said their excellent work shows with the second-place win.
"We chose the students because they are energetic and are self-motivators. They spearheaded the project and did it all themselves," said Sheryl Sadorski, a learning resource teacher and part-time principal of Pineridge.
"I just helped and guided them, but it was mostly hands off for me. I'm really proud of them."
The comic showed a teacher asking students a math equation about the distance it would take a moving train and a child walking in the opposite direction to intersect. A student points out it wouldn't matter because the train would win no matter what. The comic finishes with an equation, train tracks and pedestrians equals death.
"Miss Sadorski came up with the idea of a comic strip and we went from there," said Bellis, who said his favourite part of working on the project was getting to pose in the photos students took.
Mah said he enjoyed using the school's iPads to create the comic strip because of its camera and programs. Bond said her favourite aspect was brainstorming with her partners, with Lindsay liking the fact that the team got to work independently on the project during lunch.
Operation Lifesaver's Off the Rails contest has teams from both English and French-speaking schools create a project with a message of rail-safety to help kids understand the dangers of being around trains in an insightful and engaging way.
With the $1,000 cash prize, the students plan to buy indoor and outdoor sporting equipment for the school.