The halls of Jones County High School are filled with safe driving posters created by art students as part of a driver’s safety campaign by the Gray Police Department following the receipt of a highway safety grant.
GPD was awarded the grant in November that will help provide radar units and boost officer salaries. The grant is called a High Visibility Enforcement grant in the amount of $33,144 from the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety.
GPD Maj. Mark Robinson, who was instrumental in securing the grant, said the posters are the first of four events that the department will sponsor in connection with the grant. He said the idea behind each of the events is driver safety.
The messages on the posters include the importance of wearing seatbelts, no texting while driving and slowing down.
“We plan to bring the crash simulator to the school to show the impact of not wearing a seatbelt during an accident, including a rollover,” the major said. “If we can save one life, it will all be worth it.”
JCHS Principal Dennis Woolfolk said the timing of the safe driving posters just before the holidays was perfect.
“We have students getting parking permits every day. That means more are driving, which makes driver safety even more important,” he said.
Woolfolk said the plan is to keep the posters that are up and add to them.
The students who designed and created the posters are members of Andrea McCune’s art classes. The teacher said she has been teaching art for nine years, all in Jones County schools. This is her first year at the high school.
McCune said she was contacted by Robinson and asked if she was interested in the safe driving posters project. The teacher said she was glad to be involved and the students were excited about designing the posters.
“They had fun. Not only with the designs but in researching how to make effect public service announcements,” she said.
McCune said the students really enjoyed learning about how to use imagery to target an audience. The project was also used as a lesson in the classroom.
She said approximately 40 students were involved in grades 9-12.
