World Rabies Day Poster Competition 2025

Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory announces winners of rabies awareness poster contest

Building Rabies Free Communities through Creativity in Schools

Tuesday, April 7, 2026

MANHATTAN, KANSAS: Rabies is a deadly but 100% preventable disease of both humans and animals. As part of a continued campaign to promote rabies awareness in Kansas, the winners of the second iteration of the Kansas World Rabies Day 2025 poster contest have just been selected. The mission of this campaign, as promoted by the K-State Rabies Laboratory and several partners, is to get the word out about rabies and to increase knowledge on the potential for wildlife rabies reservoirs to transmit the disease to humans and pets.

“With over 300 entries from 40 schools across 25 counties in Kansas, we saw an increase in reach from the previous 2023 contest” said Dr. Janine Seetahal, director of the Rabies Laboratory in the KVDL. “This was an incredible collaborative effort, with our partners in industry and public health. Our judging panel comprised of representatives from the veterinary and human health sectors, who collectively scored each of the entries using standard parameters including message clarity, information accuracy, visual appeal, originality and overall impact to obtain the winners. Similar to the last time this was an extraordinarily difficult task due to superb efforts put forward by the kids, and we greatly thank all the students, teachers and schools for their thoughtful submissions."

The official 2025 theme of World Rabies Day was ‘Act now: you, me community’ is reflective of the fact that anyone at any level can positively contribute to rabies control and prevention.

“The posters will help spreading life-saving messages on the value of reporting suspect animals, responsible pet ownership, rabies vaccination, and safe coexistence with wildlife,” Dr. Seetahal said.

The poster competition was open to Kansas students in K-12, with prizes being awarded to participating schools and students in four grade-level categories. This year’s recipients are from the following schools:

Kindergarten-2nd grade 1st Place: Wynne Herndon, 2nd Grade, Trailwood Elementary School 2nd Place: Genevieve Beck, 1st Grade, Central Plains Elementary School 3rd Place: Eva Petro, 2nd Grade, Trailwood Elementary School

3rd-5th grade 1st Place: Charlotte Sanderson, 4th Grade, Holy Trinity Catholic School 2nd Place: Rebekah Born, 4th Grade, Wheat Seed Academy 3rd Place: Sarah Medrano, 5th Grade, Miller Elementary School

6th-8th grade 1st Place: Nickolett Bishop, 7th Grade, Chase Middle School 2nd Place: Kameron Alcorn-Jimenez, 6th Grade, Chase Middle School 3rd Place: Levi Wang, 6th Grade, Blue Valley Middle School

9th-12th grade 1st Place: Ace Kendle, 12th Grade, Shawnee Mission North High School 2nd Place: Jayslin Gabel, 12th Grade, Goodland Jr Sr Highschool 3rd Place: Alexa Conti, La Crosse High School

Congratulations to the winners! Images of all the winning posters have been uploaded to the K-State Rabies Lab website. https://ksvdl.org/world-rabies-day/poster-contest-winners-2025.html

The K-State Rabies Lab thanks its partners on the poster contest: Bavarian Nordic, the Kansas Department of Health and the Environment and the One Health Commission Bat Rabies Education Team.

About the Kansas State Rabies Laboratory

The Kansas State Rabies Laboratory is an internationally recognized laboratory facility dedicated to rabies virus diagnosis, serological testing and research towards the prevention of rabies from various angles. It collaborates with local, national, and international partners to contribute to the global effort to control rabies.

About World Rabies Day

World Rabies Day is an event observed each year on Sept. 28, to raise awareness about rabies prevention and to highlight the One Health approach in combating this deadly disease. It is a global initiative supported by organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the Global Alliance for Rabies Control (GARC). For more information about the World Rabies Day Global Initiative and the worldwide efforts in rabies prevention and control, please visit the Global Health Alliance For Rabies Control.