Amina Muhamed is a first grade student at McKinley Elementary School in Ham Lake and Maria Shinto is going into the fifth grade at Madison Elementary in Blaine. Both of them are concerned about school bus safety.
“Really, really important,” Amina said.
“If you drop a pen or something in front of a bus don’t go and get it,” Maria said. “You have to be safe. You should know your surroundings.”
“The work, the creativity and the message that they share is one that in turn gets shared with other students to help them be safe on the bus,” said Jeff Mueller, Anoka-Hennepin’s Transportation Safety Coordinator. “Amina’s poster and all of the other students’ posters will be used as reinforcement on bus safety.”
“This is pretty special”
These talented youngsters finished first in the 2025 Minnesota bus safety poster contest and now have their sights set on loftier goals. Amina’s poster got rave reviews by those who saw her art-work.
“Because Amina’s poster was so good, it was voted on and judged to go to the national competition which is held in New York where thousands of posters come into their office to be judged,” Mueller said. “We’re really looking forward to getting those results back.”
“I was really, really excited and happy,” Amina said about her poster. “There’s some trees. There’s a little bit of grass on each side. There’s a road that the bus is on and there’s words.”
When Madison principal Paul Anderson saw Maria’s poster he was impressed by her creativity and talent.
“When we saw that poster come through our building we said, ‘this is pretty special,” Anderson said. “This has a chance.’ I do think it does. It captures kind of Minnesota – it’s got that winter theme to it. It has a little Minnesota feel to it. It has a great list of do’s and don’ts on a bus and how to be safe.”
“If I don’t win I’m proud of myself,” Maria said. “I made it all the way to nationals. I’m just like really excited. It’s a big thing for me because I’ve never won anything like this. Making it all the way to nationals is really huge for me. My principal, he like walked into the cafeteria and he was like, ‘we have a winner. I just jumped out of my seat and started jumping.”
“The poster that she submitted is excellent,” Mueller said. “The detail once again, the message, everything. It’s no wonder those posters have both gone so far.”
Jumbotron exposure
Amina, Maria and some others who entered the contest will be saluted on July 27th at Target Field. They get get to see the Washington Nationals play the Minnesota Twins in Minneapolis.
“They’re going to actually have their posters – believe it or not – on the jumbotron,” Mueller said. “It’s great seeing your poster printed, but when you see it on a jumbotron screen in a Major League Baseball park that’s something you just don’t forget. They get to go on the field. It’s just a real special day.”
“That’s my first time going to a Twins game,” Maria said. “I’m like yay I can go.”
Bus safety is of paramount importance in the Anoka-Hennepin school district. Having two grade school students so focused on that is a huge positive.
“This is the 30th annual bus safety poster contest and we’ve had many, many, many state winners and even national winners over the years and it’s just so exciting to see our students get excited about school bus safety…” Mueller said. “Please be aware of school buses.”
“On our buses there’s just one driver in charge of all of those students,” Anderson said. “So we really rely on our students being the leaders of safety and being in charge of following our bus rules and being safe on the bus which makes the job of being a bus driver that much easier.”
“I’m telling them to never touch the bus,” Amina said.
“I also have rules written on it,” Maria said. “If someone would read it they should be like, oh yeah, I shouldn’t probably do that and not do the bad stuff.”
Each year over 40 states participate in the bus safety school poster contest.
