Since she was 4 years old, Deerfield sixth grader Kate O’Brien has tagged along with her parents to town elections, always collecting an “I voted” sticker on the way out. This spring, when her parents cast their ballots, the sticker she collects will feature her own original artistry.
In December and January, Deerfield Town Clerk Cassie Sanderell and Whately Town Clerk Amy Lavallee decided to invite elementary school students to join in on the tradition of town elections and organized a contest. The towns’ crews of creative kids took home templates for “I Voted” stickers and filled the empty circle with designs that represented their hometowns and the democratic ritual.
“Toward the end of 2025, I was looking for something to invite a bit of fun during some challenging times and a way to encourage some more folks to come out and vote at our local election,” Sanderell said, sitting in the Deerfield Town Hall next to the winning stickers pinned on the board. “I think it’s important to engage all parts of our community, especially the littles, get them involved. … You can never be too young to start thinking about elections.”
When the 10 drawings came in, Sanderell sent the pictures to town employees who took a break from their to-do lists to vote on their favorite designs, narrowing them down to three winners. Selecting just one winner from 27 entries was no easy task for Whately’s judges. The panel included Lavallee and Administrative Assistant Jessica Murphy from the town offices, as well as Whately Elementary School’s Principal Krissy Kirton, Administrative Assistant Amy Ross and Secretary Lola Stone.
“Ever since I sat in the town clerk’s seat, I’ve been trying to figure out how to get more people involved in local government, because it’s my belief that the local government is the most important to everybody’s everyday lives,” Lavallee said, adding that the town government sets regulations for the sheds residents can build and other decisions that shape their days. “It’s just one way to try to get more people involved in their local government.”
In O’Brien’s design, one voter in blue and red clutches the American flag and hands a smiling resident a sticker with the other. In the blue sky above them, speech bubbles read, “Here’s a sticker” and “Hey, I voted. Awesome, thanks!”
“It felt good to know that I accomplished something,” said O’Brien, whose design won in the fifth and sixth grade category.
Fourth grader Winslow MacCully secured the win in Deerfield for the third and fourth grade category for her pink sticker with an American flag in the shape of a heart. For MacCully, by drawing, “You can put all of your thoughts on paper,” she said with a grin.
At home, MacCully creates crafts of all kinds, from sculptures with Perler beads and magnetic beads to bedazzled books and painted rocks. During the COVID-19 pandemic, MacCully and her older sister drew roads across their driveway with chalk for their “Barbie Dream Car,” complete with stop signs and crosswalks.
At the home of Deerfield Elementary School second grader Sawyer Benson, ‘”Melting Man” — a clay sculpture inspired by the scorching climax of the first of the Indiana Jones Films: “Raiders of the Lost Ark” — greets visitors in the kitchen. Upstairs, a stairway gallery of Benson’s drawings features spiders, dancing skeletons and comics starring Harry Potter characters and monster face-offs.
For his winning sticker, Benson drew a woman representing former Vice President Kamala Harris with the American flag above the words, “I voted.” The inspiration came to him on a holiday: “It was President’s Day, and I’m not a fan of Trump,” he said with a giggle.
Other designs from Deerfield students included sunflowers, eagles, gold stars and squiggles of red teeth under a googly eye, as if the American flag awoke as a nosy monster.
In Whately, participants drew the famous milk bottle, wolves, the elementary school mascot, tractors and other winks to farming. Winner Avielle Flanary-Hall drew a red barn with a rooster peeking through a window and a pig speckled in brown spots relaxing on a field. The words “I voted in Whately” float in a cloud above the animals.
When fifth grader Flanary-Hall draws, she creates characters. Animals, monsters and food smile and smirk in her art. Maya Flanary said she can spot her daughter’s art anywhere at the elementary school, instantly recognizing Flanary-Hall’s signature “neat, cartoon-y lines.”
Like Benson, Flanary-Hall also creates her own comics, many of which star her cats Loki, Willow and Beezle, “because the world revolves around them.”
With a signature style already beginning to emerge, Flanary-Hall has been drawing “since before [she] could walk — except then, it was just slapping paper with markers.”
Now, she draws almost every night, balancing her art with a full schedule of activities. The more she practiced, the more her skills grew, and the more fun she had.
“It’s fun and it makes me calm,” she said. “When I’m mad, I usually just draw a demented cat.”