Two area students have taken top spots in a statewide poster contest sponsored by the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

This year’s Missouri winner was Robert Rupp, a fifth-grade student at Bishop Hogan Memorial School in Chillicothe, Mo. His poster will be entered in the national contest. The second-place winner, Stephanie Ramer, attends Virginia E. George Elementary School in Albany, Mo.

The theme of this year’s contest was “Bring Our Missing Children Home.” Students from Missouri elementary, parochial and home schools were invited to create a poster and write a paragraph about how their poster describes the dilemma of missing children. Posters were judged by members of the Highway Patrol.

“This contest is a creative way to help children communicate about a serious situation — one that occurs somewhere in our nation every day,” said Col. James F. Keathley, superintendent of the patrol.

The Hawthorn Bank of Jefferson City donated the first-place $100 bond, and Great Western Bank of Albany donated the $75 second-place bond. The Highway Patrol, Missing Persons Clearinghouse, sponsored this annual contest, hosted by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in Washington, D.C. To view this year’s winning posters, go to www.mshp.dps.mo.gov and click on the link to the Missing Persons State Clearinghouse. The patrol will post the rules for the 2010 contest on the Web site this fall. For more information, call (573) 526-6178.