The five winners of the Daily Echo Child of the Year 2012 competition have been announced.
Readers voted in their thousands to decide who they believed were the top children, after the Daily Echo launched the annual search to find the kids with the most dazzling and award-winning smiles in the area.
Families from across Dorset descended upon Asda at Bournemouth, the Dolphin Shopping Centre in Poole, and the Sovereign Shopping Centre in Boscombe, back in October and November, to have their picture taken.
Then, it was up to members of the public to vote by calling, posting or texting their choices to back their favourites out of over 500 pictures, which were featured in Daily Echo and on our website.
But the ultimate prize of a photo shoot with the Broadstone-based, Fraser Portraits, and a WOW book of their images could be given to only five lucky young people.
Dominik Szwat won the 0 - 9 months category, James Collins won the 10 - 18 months category, Elicia Smith won the 19 - 36 months category, Kyla-Mae Spiers-Scrimshaw won the 3 - 5 years category and Porsha Lewis won the 6 - 12 years category.
Claire Boscarelli, Promotions Manager at the Daily Echo, said: “We had a fantastic response to the competition, with over 500 entries and over 5,000 readers voting.
She added: “It was a good turn out at the shopping centres, and people were very enthusiastic about getting involved with the Child of the Year competition.”
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