Texting poster to be mounted islandwide - Shanelle Jones tops JAA Junior Club's Art competition

Budding artist Shanelle Jones saw opportunity and challenge when she received an application form for the Jamaica Automobile Association (JAA) Junior Club's Art Competition a few days before entry was closed last November.

In the competition, members of JAA Junior Clubs across Jamaica were required to design and submit a road safety advertising campaign, as well as complete the slogan "Me and my crew ...".

Emerging overall winner came as a pleasant surprise to the fourth-form student at Godfrey Stewart High School, Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland.

"I decided to enter the competition because a lot of people are dying on the roads and there is not a lot of emphasis on road safety," she said. Jones' participation was also influenced by membership in her school's JAA Junior Club.

The winning artwork will be mounted in eight locations as large billboards along high traffic roadways islandwide, as well as on a digital billboard in Half-Way Tree, St Andrew. Jones also received a Google Nexus tablet computer for her winning entry.

And, as part of Jones' prize, the Godfrey Stewart High Junior JAA Club will receive up to $100,000 towards a club service project which addresses a road-safety issue within the vicinity of the school.

"Our club is also planning to do several activities, such as highlighting the pedestrian crossing outside our school and repainting the bus shed at the gate," Jones explained.

ASPIRING PAEDIATRICIAN

For her winning entry Jones, who hopes to become a paediatrician or midwife, chose to place emphasis on the danger of pedestrians using cell phones while navigating high-traffic areas. "I placed emphasis on that activity to prevent persons from becoming victims of a road crash because they are using their cell phones and not paying enough attention to traffic," she explained.

Her design, titled 'Me and My Crew, Don't Let This Be You', depicted a group of students in uniform approaching a pedestrian crossing, with one distracted student texting on his cell phone while crossing the road. As a result, he is hit by a motor vehicle.

Christopher Scott, visual arts teacher and faculty adviser for the Godfrey Stewart High JAA Junior Club, said Shanelle put tremendous effort into creating her first graphic art poster.

"She went through about seven or eight sketches before getting to the final draft," Scott said, adding that he guided her with the sketches. "She simply added and subtracted some images until she arrived at the final product."

Roger Graham, project manager for the JAA Junior Clubs, said the competition formed part of the continued roll-out and sensitisation process for the clubs.

The Godfrey Stewart High School, which joined the JAA Junior Club programme in October 2013, has 35 members.

Graham said more than 33 JAA Junior Clubs have been established across the island. The JAA is closer to reaching its initial goal, to form 50 clubs within the first year of the programme.

The JAA Junior Club is an initiative of the Jamaica Automobile Association, in collaboration with the Jamaica National Building Society Foundation, JN General Insurance Company Limited, the Ministry of Education, the FIA Foundation and the FIA Road Safety Grant Programme.