The winners for the 2019 Project Yellow Light Scholarship competition were announced earlier this month in New York. More than 2700 students from around the country entered the competition, a near 70% jump over last year’s entries.
Project Yellow Light was born from tragedy. It was started by the family of Hunter Garner, who was killed in a car accident on June 10, 2007. He was just 16, riding with a friend who was also killed.
As a legacy to him, his family originally created a short film scholarship competition. It has since grown to include radio and billboard ads.
The goal is to honor him and raise awareness of the dangers of distracted driving, which is a leading cause of car crashes among teen drivers. In 2017 alone, 3166 people were killed in wrecks where distracted driving was determined to be the cause. According to the latest research, texting while driving increases the risk of a teen getting into a car crash by 23 times.
At the awards ceremony held earlier this month in Times Square in New York City, the winning billboard designs were on display. The winner in the high school category was Sydni Silverstone, from San Diego, CA. She designed a billboard that read “The suspense won’t kill you, texting might.”
The billboard design winner from the college age group was Alyssa Loffredo, South Salem, NY. Her message was simple, “No one likes a distracted driver.”
Mary Zost is the campaign manager for the Ad Council, a Project Yellow Light partner for the competition. Zost says, “Project Yellow Light has not only allowed the youth to openly express their voice and creativity, but also has paved the way for them to leave a lasting impact on our community.”
Julie Garner is Hunter’s mom and the founder of Project Yellow Light. She says, “It is inspirational to see young students and our amazing partners coming together for a single purpose: to prevent future tragedies by educating people about the dangers of distracted driving.” Garner says a piece of her died that day her son was killed. Since then, she has worked nonstop to promote safe driving habits with anti-texting while driving campaigns. She says the goal of the competition is to combine the power of media with student voices to save lives.
Entries were judged by industry experts, a recording artist, and a global safe driving advocate. The prize for winners of the competition is a $5000 scholarship.