Is it a bird? A plane? No, it’s Safety Stacey and she’s here to protect you this summer

Meet Safety Stacey – Northampton’s newest superhero – and the local community is going to be seeing a lot more of her as she swoops in to keep you safe this summer!

The new face of Northamptonshire Police 2019 Summer Safety campaign was revealed at an event at Grosvenor Shopping Northampton on Saturday (July 13).

Safety Stacey was borne from the imagination of Mahima Begun, aged 10 and a pupil at St James C of E Primary School, and after being crowned as the winning design, she will now star on all the leaflets, stickers and badges promoting important summer safety messages in Northampton.

Mahima also received £100 worth of vouchers to spend at The Entertainer store based at Grosvenor Shopping Northampton.

The Summer Safety campaign saw the Northampton Neighbourhood Policing Team join forces with the Northamptonshire Office of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, Embrace CVoC and RNLI, to tour eight local primary schools last month.

The schools which took part were: Abington Vale Stirling Campus, Abington Vale Park Campus, Barry Primary, Stimpson Avenue Academy, Kings Heath Primary School, Earl Spencer Primary School, St Mary’s Catholic Primary School and St James CE Primary School.

To showcase what they had learned, pupils were then invited to create their own superhero that embodied those safety messages and enter it to be the new lead of Northamptonshire Police’s campaign.

As well as Mahima’s winning design, runners-up were selected from each school, while there was also special recognition for Azmi Ali, a Year 5 pupil at St James CE Primary, who designed a collection of superheroes, with each representing a key summer safety message.

PCSO Naomi Coote of the Northampton Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “This was the third year we have held the Summer Safety campaign, and were delighted with the number of people who came along to support the event.

“We asked local primary school children to design a new superhero for this year’s campaign. The poster competition certainly caught their imagination but was a fun way to spread what is a serious safety message.

“The feedback from our partner agencies was very positive, however we could not have done it without their support, and of course funding from the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, Stephen Mold, and the Grosvenor Shopping Northampton.”

James Roberts, centre manager at Grosvenor Shopping Northampton, said: “With the school holidays nearly upon us, we were more than delighted to be able to host Northamptonshire Police’s Summer Safety campaign.

“To be able to see first-hand the superhero designs that the local kids put together was superb too. Safety Stacey is a worthy winner, but there were a lot of cool and creative designs. Overall, it was a fantastic event and we’re so pleased we could be part of it.”

Sarah Beach, Head Teacher at St James CE Primary School, added: “We’re very proud of all the students that entered the Summer Safety and as a school we’re incredibly proud that Mahima’s design came out on top.

“Mahima is a lovely girl and always displays our school values: courage, service and respect. We love the fun superhero design she put together and after the presentation she could not wait to get started with it.

“With the holidays nearly here, those summer safety messages are important and we’re pleased that Northants Police and Northamptonshire Office of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner came to our school to talk to our kids about it.”