Students Win Scholarships From AAA by Promoting Traffic Safety

    ORLANDO, Fla.--May 31, 2001--AAA announced that four high school seniors each won a $5,000 college scholarship in its 5th annual Senior High Communication Contest, and three other students scored top honors in its 56th annual National School Traffic Safety Poster Program.
    Earning the Grand Award for their creative efforts in the Senior High Communication Contest were Rachel Strohminger and Heather Clingerman of Westerville North High School in Westerville, Ohio; Thomas English of James B. Conant High School in Hoffman Estates, Ill.; Lindsay Hinrichs of Beaver Creek High School in Beaver Creek, Ohio.
    Strohminger and Clingerman won for their animated video presentation on DUI prevention; Hinrichs won for her poster on safe driving practices; and English received his award for an essay on the consequences of not wearing a safety belt.

    Grand Award winners in the Poster Program were:

    -- Primary Division - Shantel Pinkney, 8, a third-grade student from Mudge Elementary in Fort Knox, Ky., for her illustration of the slogan, "Use your Head, Wear a Helmet;"

    -- Elementary Division - Rebecca Arnold, 11, a fifth-grade student at St. Vincent De Paul school in Mount Vernon, Ohio, for her depiction of the slogan, "Be Seen After Dark;" and

    -- Junior High Division - Boneli Lotilla, 14, an eighth-grader from Schuyler-Colfax Middle School in Wayne, N.J., for her version of the slogan, "Steer Clear of Drinking and Driving."

    All Grand Award winners in the Poster Program receive a $500 United States Savings Bond.
    "Each one of the over eighty thousand students who enter the poster and communication competition helps AAA showcase the important role traffic safety plays in our lives every day," said Mark Edwards, managing director, AAA Traffic Safety.
    "The winning students showed a great deal of imagination and artistic skills to create their entries and they should be commended for their efforts," Edwards added.
    The programs are designed to teach students valuable safety lessons. Each year students design posters using one of 20 slogans, with topics ranging from pedestrian and bicycle safety to encouraging safety belt use and pointing out the dangers of drinking and driving.
    AAA Clubs first judged entries in both competitions. The top 20 percent of these were forwarded to the AAA National Office for national judging. The winning designs are reproduced for use with AAA Traffic Safety teaching materials; more than six million reproductions are distributed annually.
    As North America's largest motoring and leisure travel organization, AAA provides its 43 million members with travel, insurance, financial and automotive-related services. Since its founding in 1902, the not-for-profit, fully tax-paying AAA has been a leader and advocate for the safety and security of all travelers. 05/01/12dc

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