Caseys win $10K in Jersey Drives campaign
Christian Sherman, Sophia Rossi, Liv Scaglione and Meghan Cardoza are members of the Red Bank Catholic Just Drive program, which successfully lobbied the borough to install speed limit signs on Peters Place near the school. Photo courtesy Red Bank Catholic 
The Red Bank Catholic Just Drive team asked borough officials to help make roads near the school safer for pedestrians and drivers. Photo courtesy Red Bank Catholic
By David Torres
RED BANK – Red Bank Catholic has been a part of the Jersey Drives U Got Brains Champion Schools program for more than a decade and for most of those years, the school earned honorable mentions for its work promoting safe driving. However, last year’s campaign, “Red Bank Ready,” earned top honors – and the $10,000 prize that goes with it.
The Jersey Drives program has been around for nearly 15 years, with 200-plus schools and nearly 1 million students involved throughout the state. The program’s goal is to give opportunities for students to create projects on driving safety for the chance to receive a cash prize courtesy of NJM Insurance Group. The program is sponsored by the Brain Injury Alliance of New Jersey
As RBC’s program advisor, Kathleen Booth, a member of the school’s guidance department, came up with the theme Red Bank Ready to promote safe driving. The group of RBC students – sophomores, juniors and seniors – made T-shirts and hung posters and flyers all around town promoting their program and getting people involved. They interviewed fellow students, crossing guards and police officers and made videos raising awareness of the problems that many drivers and pedestrians face in the borough.
“I believe that the campaign worked in making Red Bank safer,” said Meghan Cardoza, a member of RBC’s Just Drive team. “I think it made everyone aware of the situation. It kind of gave them a firsthand experience.”
When asked what motivated her to start a Just Drive program at RBC, Booth said, “The statistics about people who get hurt” are staggering. Although high school students are not of legal drinking age, there are plenty of other distractions, from cell phones to friends in the car to other drivers. “They have to be careful” when they’re on the road, she said.
Last April, members of the RBC program met with Red Bank Deputy Mayor Kate Triggiano, then-Chief of Police Darren McConnell, and other borough officials to put their plan of a safer Red Bank into action. The main goal of the campaign was to address three problems that both drivers and pedestrians face: parking lot safety, rules of crosswalks, and the Move Over law. After listening to the students’ presentation, the town agreed to put up speed monitoring signs at both entrances to Peters Place, the street that runs next to RBC and the kindergarten through eighth-grade St. James School. These signs show drivers their current speed and alert them if they are over the limit.
President of RBC’s Just Drive campaign, senior Allie Hague, said their efforts “brought a lot of attention to safe driving in the community, even beyond RBC.”
“I think back to when there were accidents in the parking lot; I can’t tell you the last time there was one,” said RBC senior Frank Sinatra.
With help from the borough, RBC’s Just Drive campaign started making changes for a safer future in Red Bank.
The U Got Brains campaign is sponsored by The Brain Injury Alliance of New Jersey. The other $10,000 winners were Indian Hills High School and Orange County High School.
The article originally appeared in the April 3 – 9, 2025 print edition of The Two River Times.
