"Abstinence" is the word being put out by Positive Productions, a spring project of students in the University of the Virgin Islands journalism program. The community outreach campaign, which is being inaugurated this week, is the first of its kind locally.
Responding to a need expressed by her senior students, then UVI journalism program director Jean Etsinger decided to offer a Public Relations course for their spring semester under "Selected Topics." This is not a course of study normally offered by the university's journalism program.
She organized the students to function as their own public relations agency, Positive Productions, and instructed them to come up with an idea for a community service print and electronic media campaign of their own choosing – a fairly bold idea for the novices to develop and carry out.
The group decided that the promotion of sexual abstinence among students in junior and senior high school was a subject that merited attention. To go about this, they directed their attention to selecting community role models who would serve as spokespersons for their campaign. Each student was assigned two spokespersons,
The students are an assorted bunch, themselves, ranging from 26-year-old Chairiese Krigger, former V.I. Independent intern and "Vox Populi" reporter, to Sgt. Annette Raimer of the Police Department. Raimer obtained a year's leave from the department to study journalism at UVI in preparation for becoming the police public information officer.
For the abstinence project, Raimer targeted calypsonian Louis Ible Jr. and Jamz radio personality Robert Luke as role models. She wrote the scripts for their spots, including Ible's calypso lyrics.
Krigger took on the same task for singer Lorna Freeman and Charlotte Amalie High School music teacher Georgia Francis. Freeman in her script questions whether anyone would really want to be "casual" about sex. Krigger says she looked up the word casual in the dictionary and came up with "not planned" and "careless," which isn't a cool or smart way to go about anything.
The students created in all nine 30-second public service announcements for television and radio and the same number for posters and print community service ads depicting their role models. All the spots carry the key message: "Don't start! And if you have, stop!"
The other spokespersons donating their efforts to the campaign are boxer Julian Jackson; Shikima Jones-Smith, singer; Dr. Catherine Kean, physician; Alford "Watambo" Richards Jr., rapper; and Carthy Thomas, publicist. Journalism students Nanyamka Farrelly and Nisha Khiani, both former Daily News interns, and Jacqueline Somersall-Berry, former intern and current part-time employee at WTJX-Channel 12, made up the balance of the class.
The project was funded in part by a grant from the St. Thomas/St. John chapter of the American Red Cross. Technical assistance was provided by the Digital Video Institute at the Reichhold Center for the Arts, Knight Quality Stations, Channel 12, Pennysaver Printing, Peggy DeLong Graphics and J Newhart Video.
The campaign is aimed strictly at students, Etsinger said. They are the targets – not parents, not teachers; in fact, not grownups, at all. The students hope that by the careful selection of role models and by their presentations, they may encourage in high school students caution and safety in sexual matters which could mean life or death.
All project materials are being distributed to the media territorywide. Any organization that would like a set of the nine posters may request one by calling (340) 776-4812.
