April O'Neil / news@WHMI.com

The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is now accepting applications for the 2024-25 Paint the Plow program, open to all Michigan high schools, including technical and vocational programs.

The program offers a unique opportunity for MDOT to partner with area schools, using students’ creativity to communicate safe winter driving practices for all Michigan residents.

Students are invited to submit a creative and original design, reflecting their individual school, while promoting a selected safety theme.

This year’s safety theme is “Go hands-free. Just drive. It’s the law.”

The safety theme serves as a reminder to motorists that new legislation has made it illegal to hold and use an electronic device while driving in Michigan. While the legislation has been in place since June 2023, drivers across the state continue to engage in unsafe driving practices using electronic devices. Communicating the importance of this message on MDOT plow blades tasked with clearing our roads of ice and snow through the winter will serve as an additional reminder of the responsibility all drivers must take when operating their vehicles.

MDOT will accept Paint the Plow design applications through Friday, May 17. Selected schools will be notified before the end of the 2024 school year and arrangements will be made for the delivery of their plow blade in the fall.

Depending on location through the state, schools will have approximately six weeks to complete their design before MDOT staff return for the completed plow blade in time to ready trucks for the winter maintenance season. Painted plow blades will be visible along various state trunk lines in Michigan through the winter.

Interested schools can visit the provided link for more information or to submit their design.

Pictured: Ovid-Elsie High School honors art students completed a design for the 2023-2024 pilot season of MDOT’s Paint the Plow program, incorporating the safety message, “Don’t rush in ice and slush.”