May 2, 2007 – Aaron George and Hannah Hosein of Adelitta Cancryn Junior High School and Shanee Isaac of Bertha C. Boschulte Middle School were among the top three winners of the essay contest on noise pollution that has been coordinated by Nihjole Heskey, UVI student nurse, and sponsored by the office of Sen. Liston A. Davis. The title of the essay was "Noise Pollution: How It Affects My Community and What We Can Do to Correct It." A total of 24 students entered the contest.
The purpose of the contest was to sensitize children to the negative effects that noise has on the community. According to the students' definition, noise is any sound that causes human annoyance or disturbance. Noise is known to cause sleep disturbance, hearing impairment, increased blood pressure and pulse, and interference with spoken communication. Common sources of noise pollution in the Virgin Islands are street parties, bars, nightclubs, boom cars, repeated acceleration and deceleration of vehicles in the public streets, and repeated firing of gunshots.
The 1st prize of $200 went to Aaron George of Addelita Cancryn Junior High; the 2nd prize of $100 went to Hannah Hosein of the same school; the 3rd prize of $50 went to Shanee Isaac of Bertha Boschulte Middle School.
"All the essays were excellent and augur well for the interest of our young generation in combating the scourge of noise pollution," said Sen. Davis, who is a sponsor of the anti-noise pollution bill currently making its way through the Legislative hopper.
