CASSOPOLIS — The regular meeting of the Cass County Board of Commissioners was visited by a large group of young, smiling faces Thursday night, with proud parents filling the meeting room to the point where they were spilling out the door.

Several of the children clutched a book in their hands that was covered in colorful drawings, a book that will go on to help young crime victims.

The Cass County Board of Commissioners recently recognized elementary students who had won an art competition to have their artwork included in the “Going to Court” booklet, which is given to young crime victims going through court proceedings.

The booklets contain basic information a young crime victim would need to know, explained in simple language, such as what an arraignment is, what a jury is and what a subpoena is. The booklet also contains images of rooms in the courthouse a victim might enter and the images of people the victim may interact with, such as lawyers and judges.

Each year, local elementary students submit artwork based on the theme of going to court to be included in the book, as Cass County Prosecutor Victor Fitz said that seeing images drawn by other young children is comforting to young crime victims.

“This really does help the little kids,” Fitz said before telling the student winners a story about a 6-year-old girl who recently had to testify in court. “She had to testify about something really serious, but she got to look through one of these books and that really calmed her down.”

Elementary students from Cassopolis, Dowagiac and Marcellus participated in this year’s competition. Winners were chosen by the Cass County Council on Aging and the Cass County Prosecutor’s Office.

Sam Adams Elementary School, Marcellus Elementary, Kincheloe Elementary and Patrick Hamilton Elementary all had winners.

The winners from Sam Adams Elementary School include Sienna Young, the front cover winner, Caeydon Landrum, Brylee Jones, Annabelle Vanderbosch, Waylon Yakel, Jordin Heiman and Dickson Samadder. The winners form Marcellus Elementary include: Josie Adams, Ryder Cornwell and Carina Huyck. The winners from Kincheloe Elementary include: Matthew Steppenwolf, back cover winner, Johannah McDonald, Isabella Akers, Elizabeth Kelly, Natalie Green and Ava Sprague. The winner from Patrick Hamilton Elementary is Madison Wilds.

“I want to thank you so much for being part of this,” Fitz said to the winners Thursday. “Because this will help kids for the rest of their lives.”

At Thursday’s meeting, the commissioners presented the winners with certificates and pins, before shaking the hands of each winner.

Both the student winners and commissioners said they enjoyed the event.

“I think this is my favorite meeting of the year,” commented Commissioner Terry Ausra. “It’s just really great to see.”