Madison County State's Attorney Tom Gibbons has announced the winners in his second annual Red Ribbon Week anti-drug poster contest.

Macy Smith, of Columbus Elementary in Edwardsville was the winner in the third grade category. Katelyn Voegele, of St. Paul's School in Highland was the winner amongst fourth graders and Peyton Gilliam of Worden Elementary School in Worden finished tops amongst fifth graders.

Gibbons said the students should be proud for producing the top posters in a group of hundreds of Madison County elementary school students who submitted entries.

"It's heartening that so many students and their teachers take the time out to participate," Gibbons said. "We want our kids to think about making good choices in their lives and the Red Ribbon campaign encourages students to visualize what it means to be drug free."

The winners will have their posters displayed on the 4th Floor of the Madison County Administration Building outside of the State's Attorney's Office. They'll also get a pizza lunch with their class delivered personally by Gibbons.

The winning posters were chosen by a committee of state's attorney's office staff members.

Red Ribbon week, which started in 1986 as a way to show unity against illegal drugs, runs from Oct. 23-31. It was inspired by the 1985 murder of an American Drug Enforcement Agency investigator, Enrique "Kiki" Camarena, in Mexico.

Camarena was kidnapped, tortured and murdered after his investigation led to the prosecution the members of a multi-million dollar drug operation. Residents of the community where the agent was murdered hung red ribbons throughout the town to show their unity against the drug pushers while residents of Camarena's home town of Calexico, Calif. wore them in remembrance of the agent. The gesture was adopted by American schools the following year.

Contact reporter Scott Wuerz at swuerz@bnd.com or call 239-2626.