City of Plaquemine announces litter commercial challenge winners

PLAQUEMINE - A group of five juniors at Plaquemine High School won the litter commercial challenge sponsored by the City of Plaquemine. They were awarded $100 gift certificates for their hard work and creativity.

The winning student team included Jameshaulyn Fernandez, Anthonica Johnson, Darion Parker, Julius Maracalin, and Kevinik James.

The commercial can be seen on the city's website. A total of 12 entries were submitted in the litter commercial challenge, and the city had heavy participation from PHS students because of its digital media class and the support of digital media teacher Amanda Sutton.

"We want to thank PHS and Ms. Sutton for their support of this contest," said Mayor Mark "Tony" Gulotta. "Studies show that young people are the primary litterers, so we wanted to get the message across to them that littering hurts our community, and also that litter ends up in Bayou Plaquemine, harming the fish and bayou habitat."

The city spends some $25,000 per year on litter clean-up, and has held numerous clean-up events to clean Bayou Plaquemine and other areas of the city.

The contest was revealing because officials learned more about students' perceptions about littering. "We learned that a lot of young people have the misperception that littering is OK and everyone does it," Gulotta said. "And unfortunately, a lot of them learned littering is OK from their parents. A real cultural shift is needed to stop the litter problem in this area."