Six Students Win `Safe Princeton’ Traffic Safety Cartoon Caption Contest

Left to Right: Princeton Public Schools info. tech. coord. Lix Lien, Andrew Huang, JoyCards owner Joy Chen, Linda Bloom, Borough Mayor Yina Moore, Jake Renda,Township Deputy Mayor Liz Lempert, Jenna Cody, Rebecca Ravitz. Photo by Robert J. Gleason (rjgleason.net.)

Four Princeton High School students, a Montgomery High School student and a Community Park Elementary School student are the winners of the cartoon caption contest for the new Safe Princeton campaign. The campaign is aimed at educating drivers, cyclists and pedestrians about following the rules of the road, crosswalks and sidewalks.

At an awards ceremony, the winners were awarded a total of $1,100 in privately donated cash prizes by Borough Mayor Yina Moore and Township Deputy Mayor Liz Lempert.

Students named and wrote captions for cartoon characters drawn and contributed by Joy Chen, owner of JoyCards, Inc. Mayor Yina Moore said that the cartoons will be used in publicity throughout the community during the coming months to highlight some of the dangerous traffic behavior that has led to a 60 percent increase in pedestrian and bike accidents in the Borough during the last three years.

Princeton High School students William Xu and Augustus Huang each won $300 for coming up with a name and two captions for several cartoons, while Princeton High School student Jeanna Cody won $200 for two winning names.

Linda Bloomwon from Princeton High won $100 for the caption, “It’s Nassau, not NASCAR.” Judges considered the caption so good, they asked Chen to produce a new drawing of drivers trying to beat red lights on Nassau Street.

Montgomery High School student Rebecca Ravitz won $100 for her caption “Better to Show Up Late Than Not to Show Up At All,” which accompanies a character hurrying through traffic outside of a crosswalk just to get a cup of coffee.

Community Park student Jake Renda bested six high school contenders with his name for a motorist texting while driving, Texting Tim.