Paint Your City Orange anti-bullying contest winners announced

By BRITTANY FHOLER
Cove Leader-Press

The Five Hills Scholarship Pageant announced the winners of the “Paint Your City Orange” anti-bullying campaign for local businesses during the Copperas Cove Chamber of Commerce’s Chamber Mixer held at Crawford-Bowers Funeral Home. 
The anti-bullying campaign was the project of Preteen Miss Five Hills Dorianna Gilbert, whose platform is anti-bullying. On top of a Suicide Prevention Walk that Gilbert co-hosted with the Copperas Cove High School DECA chapter, Gilbert also organized a decorating contest to encourage local business owners and students in Copperas Cove ISD to raise awareness against bullying by decorating their business or school orange. 
More than 30 participants entered the contest, including more than a dozen businesses. 
Members of the Five Hills Scholarship pageant split into two groups to judge the schools and the businesses separately. The winning business and winning school each received a $100 cash prize from Gilbert along with a plaque commemorating the contest.
The winners of the CCISD campus contest were announced during the October CCISD board of trustees meeting earlier this month, while the business winners were announced Thursday evening at the Chamber Mixer. 
Volunteer Pageant Director Wendy Sledd and Gilbert’s older sister De’Naya presented the awards to the first and second place winners and announced the winner of the Best Window category, which was created because Dorianna liked the window display so much. 
The winner of Best Window is the Healthy Hub, which had orange handprints and a message to “Stop the Bullying” painted across their front windows. 
The second-place winner is the Copperas Cove Wal-Mart branch of 1st National Bank Texas. The first-place winner is GymKix. 
Sledd shared that it was a close call for these two winners, with one eking out the other by mere points. 
Sledd thanked the different businesses for participating in the contest and showing their creativity and that bullying is not accepted in Copperas Cove. 
“It was amazing how many of them, when we went into judge, shared personal stories with us, either what they had experienced themselves, or when they had stood up for someone else that was experiencing it,” Sledd said. 
As a rule of the contest, businesses had to keep their anti-bullying decorations up through the end of October in order to have received their prize. 
The businesses who participated include: GymKix, 1st National Bank (inside the Copperas Cove Wal-Mart), 1st National Bank Texas (at 101 W. Hwy 190), the 1st National Bank (inside H-E-B Plus!), the Copperas Cove Leader-Press, the Copperas Cove Chamber of Commerce, Legacy Martial Arts, the Copperas Cove Municipal Court, ExtraCo Bank, the CCISD Transportation Department, the Healthy Hub, Nonpareil Barbershop, the Optimist Thrift Store and the Bookstore Barber Salon.