LSCPA’s Glaze wins Port Arthur Transit logo contest
Lamar State College Port Arthur graphic design student Lane Glaze, center, won the Port Arthur Transit logo contest recently. Glaze, a resident of Port Neches, is pictured with, from left, Brad Coleman and Alvin Abrams of the City of Port Arthur Transit, LSCPA Dean of Workforce Training and Continuing Education Dr. Ben Stafford, State Rep. Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont), and LSCPA President Dr. Betty Reynard.
It was only a few years ago that Lane Glaze started using a wheelchair. As his body began to betray him in the face of a neurological disease, the young Port Neches resident faced a life challenge that for many might serve as a defeat.
Instead, Glaze proved to others something he already knew about himself: he will continue to win at life no matter what.
While the progressive disease has taken his ability to walk and limited the use of his hands and arms, Glaze utilized graphic design programs as a student at Lamar State College Port Arthur and developed a logo that recently won the Port Arthur Transit logo contest. Glaze placed first in the contest, earning a $500 award, while Haley Broussard and Irene Iju James were runners-up.
“I’m able to do whatever I need on computers, it just takes me a little bit longer,” he said after learning of his win during a ceremony at the LSCPA Student Center. “This is exciting, knowing that my logo will be seen all over Port Arthur. I’ll be able to look up and see my work passing by on the streets all over the city.”
The logo contest was the brainchild of Port Arthur Transit Manager Ivan Mitchell. In cooperation with the college, the PAT sought a new look for replacement buses that will be traversing the city in the coming years.
“The contest seemed liked a great idea because it worked as a partnership between the city and the college,” said Dr. Ben Stafford, Dean of Workforce and Continuing Education, who coordinated the contest at the school. “This is a relationship we’re always happy to foster and in this case, it helped lift up a remarkable student who serves as an inspiration to us all.”
Glaze suffers from Friedreich’s ataxia, a neurological disease that causes the abnormal metabolism of iron in his system. Though the problem was identified early in his life, it wasn’t until he was 16 years old that his condition forced him into a wheelchair.
“Not many people know what it is,” he explained. “My body can’t release iron properly, so it builds up. It throws off my balance and coordination and it’s starting to affect my speech.”
It doesn’t affect his positive approach to life, however.
“It just takes me longer to hit the keys,” he said of working with the graphic design computer programs. “I want to get into 3-D printing and graphic design goes hand in hand with that. My goal is to get into some sort of manufacturing process.”
