Student Wins $5,000 Prize In AAA Traffic Safety Art Contest
7 June 2000
La Habra Student Wins $5,000 National Grand Prize In AAA Traffic Safety Art Contest
LA HABRA, Calif. - A senior from Whittier Christian High School in La Habra has won the grand award in the fourth annual AAA Senior High School Communication Contest.Winnie Tzeng, 17, of Placentia will receive a $5,000 scholarship for her winning poster depicting the safety theme "Occupant Protection." Tzeng's design features a seat belt in the shape of a bright red apple against a black background with the slogan "A seat belt a day keeps the doctor away." Tzeng's poster also recently won a $75 award in the Automobile Club of Southern California's local poster contest.
The Auto Club is the local coordinator of the national contest, which encourages students to learn about positive traffic safety behaviors by expressing their ideas through artwork and other media.
"Traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for children and young people up to age 25," said Arline Dillman, Ph.D., the Auto Club's traffic safety expert. "This program lets students learn and express valuable safety lessons through fun and creative visual and written media."
The Auto Club reproduces several of the local student posters and distributes them free of charge to elementary, middle and high schools throughout Southern California to remind students about traffic safety issues. More than 100,000 copies of Tzeng's poster will be reproduced and distributed to public and private schools, libraries and law enforcement agencies throughout Southern California.
The Senior High Contest, along with the AAA National Traffic Safety Poster Program for younger students, awards more than $33,000 in savings bonds and scholarships each year. Entries are judged on originality, presentation, visual impact and relationship to traffic safety. Categories for the contest include graphic arts, written and audio/visual.
The Automobile Club of Southern California, the largest affiliate of the AAA, has been serving members since 1900. Today, the Auto Club's members benefit by the organization's roadside assistance, insurance services, travel agency, financial products, automotive pricing, buying and financing programs, automotive testing and analysis, trip planning services, highway and transportation safety programs and legislative advocacy.
