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Student earns distinction during traffic safety contest
An aspiring student artist will help promote traffic safety across Idaho over the coming year after her hand-drawn creation earned distinction during a state competition.
Victoria Rosario, a fourth grader at the Base Primary School at Mountain Home Air Force Base, was one of 14 children selected to showcase their art in the Idaho Transportation Department's yearly highway safety kids calendar.
Celebrating its 11th anniversary, the state-wide contest features drawings related to highway safety created by students in kindergarten to sixth grade.
"It's honestly children like Victoria that are the ones educating adults on traffic safety," said Officer Kyle Wills from the Boise Police Department, who serves as a liaison with the state transportation department. "It's neat to consider that children are the ones setting the example for drivers to follow."
Victoria was the only student in southwestern Idaho to make it to the final round of judging for the 2011 safety calendar, said Steve Grant, a spokesman with the Idaho Department of Transportation.
Victoria entered the competition last spring as a student in Amy Downey's third grade classroom at the base school. She still remembers the day she received the assignment.
"That day, they said we could draw a picture of safety stuff and the safety of crossing roads," Victoria said. "They passed out the papers, I took one home and told my mom I was interested in drawing something."
Entries for each calendar feature different themes per grade level. In her case, the topic dealt with the dangers of texting while driving.
Setting her sights on producing an award-winning entry, the youngster remained determined to write a catchy phrase to accompany her illustration. Hoping to also make those words rhyme made it even tougher, her mother Norma Rosario said.
"We started with the letter 'A' and tried to find words that rhymed and went from there," her mother added.
Over the course of several evenings, Victoria would pull out paper and a pencil and sketch out ideas while mulling over ideas of what she wanted to capture in words and images.
"She's a perfectionist. She works hard to make things the exact way she envisions them," her mother said.
With the entry deadline rapidly approaching, the right words just seemed to pop into Victoria's mind, allowing her to put the final touches on her project. It came down to just 12 words: "When you talk and text on phones, you can break some bones."
"I drew it because I wanted to show the consequences if you text and drive," Victoria said.
Her father, Fredric Rosario, learned about his daughter's contest participation during a phone call he made from his deployed location in Afghanistan.
"It really made me laugh. It was so catchy, that I wrote it down in my (note) book, which I carried around with me," he said.
A fan of Idaho history, Victoria enjoys the challenge of creating slogans.
"She likes to express herself and be creative," her mother said.
Her award-winning entry follows a previous title she earned while her family was based at Aviano Air Base, Italy. Victoria earned a second-place finish for her artwork promoting recycling.
The local student is one of a handful of others in Elmore County to earn a spot in the children's calendar. Last year, local students Jazzi Cristobal and Daisy Malan from the Mountain Home School District earned similar recognition after their artwork appeared in the 2010 highway safety calendar. Two years ago, the department chose Kyleigh Sanchez from Glenns Ferry Elementary School for its 2009 edition.
Since hosting its first contest, the transportation department continues to see increasing interest in the calendar contest, Grant said. During the initial years, the department often received up to 800 of the handmade creations. For this year's competition, judges had to review roughly 1,500 entries from schools across the state.
Officials with the transportation department plan to honor Victoria's award-winning achievement during a ceremony at the base school later this month. Copies of the calendar are available by calling the state transportation department's office of highway operations and safety at 334-8100.