Let me first say that several of the judges commented that it was difficult to narrow their choices in the contest. Overall, the feedback was generally positive.

Here are the winners in the 2016 SW Video/Essay Contest, as chosen by our panel of judges. For those interested, you can see all of the entries here.

Video entry:
#5 – Low Voltage LED Bulb comparison
Submitted by Alan Fiebig
Prize package:
Baofeng UV-5R radio
Copy of Prepper’s Communication Handbook
Small selection of DVDs from the Make Ready to Survive series
A UV Marker and UV pen light for leaving your own secret messages.

Essay entry:
#10 – Kids and Preparedness
Submitted by Elyssa Jones
Prize package:
Baofeng UV-5R radio
Copy of Prepper’s Communication Handbook
Copy of The Survival Group Handbook
A UV Marker and UV pen light for leaving your own secret messages.

Fan Favorite, as voted by you folks:
Video #1 – Teaching the Next Generation the Importance of Preparing and Building a BOB
Submitted by John Shandor
Prize package:
One copy each of:
The Journal (combined edition of first three books) by Deborah D. Moore
Prepper’s Communication Handbook
Prepper’s Financial Guide
Prepper’s Survival Hacks

We also selected one voter at random to receive a handful of Make Ready to Survive DVDs from Panteao Productions. That winner is Kevin Koren.

Thank you, all who submitted entries in the contest this year. Thank you, also, to all who took the time to vote for their favorite entry. Finally, HUGE thanks to our panel of judges who took time out of their busy schedules to participate in the contest. Again, those folks are (in addition to myself):

John McCann – well known and highly respected survival and preparedness instructor and author, as well as owner of Survival Resources.

Rich Beresford III – head honcho over at Around the Cabin, pioneers and innovators of live streaming video used in teaching self-reliance.

Gaye Levy – preparedness authority and blogger at BackdoorSurvival.com.

Craig Caudill – Director of Nature Reliance School and all around great guy.

Charley Hogwood – Owner of P.R.E.P., and author of The Survival Group Handbook.

Scott Finazzo – Author of The Neighborhood Emergency Response Handbook and The Prepper’s Workbook. See his website here.