SAN FERNANDO : Student Billboards to Fight Alcohol, Drugs

The dramatic image of a body being thrown through a car windshield--soon to be on a northeast Valley billboard as part of an anti-alcohol and drug campaign--becomes all the more persuasive upon meeting the artist.

“It happened to me,” Ignacio Alvarado, 17, a junior at Sylmar High School, said after winning second place in the San Fernando-Pacoima Alcohol Prevention Coalition billboard contest.

Alvarado was 3 when he was thrown through the windshield in an accident. His father, who had been drinking, was at the wheel when he hit another car head-on, Alvarado said. Despite his age at the time of the accident, Alvarado still has flashbacks in which he sees the crash.

“It was difficult,” Alvarado said about creating the billboard, adding that it was important for him to get the anti-alcohol message across.

Alvarado’s friend and fellow art class student Carlos Martinez took first place for a billboard design of the devil, symbolizing the disastrous effects of drinking. Martinez said he had figured that Alvarado would win.

“He had more detail,” said Martinez, who will spend the $300 prize money on his 4-month-old daughter.

Students from 15 elementary, middle and high schools in San Fernando, Sylmar and Pacoima submitted 340 entries in the billboard contest, which coalition leaders hope will become an annual event to combat the influence of billboards that promote alcoholic beverages.

Contest winners were named in a ceremony last week, but organizers said that any of the entries can still be used as a billboard.

By an arrangement with billboard companies, the coalition can put up as many as 15 billboards with anti-drug and alcohol messages. Five billboards are available for a three-month period and the coalition can put up different billboards each month.

While not as artistically mature as some of the high school entries, the drawings and simple messages of elementary students also have an impact.

Their entries were split into two categories--Spanish and English language.

Winners and some of the other contest entries were shown in a slide show at the San Fernando Middle School, with slogans such as: “ Por Favor No Toma “ (Please Don’t Drink); “Don’t Drink, Have Fun With Your Family;” “There’s No Hope in Dope;” “Choose Booze and Loose, Stay Dry and Fly;” and “ Es Borracho No Es Macho “ (He’s Drunk He’s Not Macho.)

One entry showed a baby in its mother’s womb begging the mother not to drink. Another simply said, “My cousin Jerry got hit by a drunk driver.”