COMPETING against elementary and primary schools from the United Kingdom, Canada, Trinidad and Tobago and the United States of America, Corinaldi Avenue Primary School in St James emerged victors in the 2013 World Plumbing Day International Poster Competition.

The competition, sponsored by the United States-based World Plumbing Council, saw Andrew Malcolm and Nakelia Humphrey, both 5th grade students at the school, walking away with the coveted first and second place prizes respectively.

The school decided to participate in the competition when Donette Salmon and Dane Julius, teachers at the school, saw the information on the Internet and decided to enter two students.

“We have very talented students here at Corinaldi, and so we decided that Nakelia Humphrey and Andrew Malcolm would be good choices (to do entries), seeing that they have more experience in entering poster competitions and doing very well at them,” Salmon said.

Julius said this was not the first poster competition that the school has won, and their achievements have spanned both international and local competitions over the years. He and Salmon expressed their joy at the results of the competition.

“It is not only that we won, but we gained the two top places in the competition, which is a first for the competition itself, so we were overwhelmed,” Salmon said.

The students received US$100 and US$50 respectively. The prize also included US$1,000 based on Malcolm’s achievement and US$500 based on Humphrey’s achievement being given to Corinaldi Avenue Primary to put towards developing the school.

Principal Cynthia Munroe said that she and the entire school population felt very excited to have outdone the many schools from around the world that entered the competition.

“We had done it before and we knew that we could do it again,” she said, while praising the art teacher at the institution for the continued success of the students.

“Our teachers are highly motivated and committed, and they transmit this commitment and motivation to our students; and so our students know that when they get out there they have to excel — they want to achieve at the highest,” she said.