Unicycling on a soda bottle?

Local boys’ photo selected for Jones Soda label.

Two boys from Alexandria designed a pop bottle label – and a unique one at that.

Sitka Corage, a sophomore at Jefferson High School (JHS) in Alexandria, and Jimmy Pfeffer, a freshman at Discovery Middle School in Alexandria, submitted a photo to the Jones Soda Company in Seattle, Washington.

Jones Soda was launched in January 1996 with six flavors. The soda has been recognized and awarded for its unique packaging that features constantly changing labels that are generated and submitted by its consumers.

The Jones Soda label states: “Send us your photo. If we like it we will put it on our label.”

For the Alexandria boys, the thought of having their own label began during the summer of 2011 when they biked to a local gas station.

“We saw the labels on the Jones Soda bottles and thought it would be cool to try to get our photo on there,” explained Corage.

The boys viewed the archive of winning labels on the company’s website and knew they had to come up with something unusual.

They decided on unicycling.

“We thought we’d have a good chance because unicycling is unique and something different,” said Corage.

The photo shoot took less than an hour.

Each boy took a turn behind and in front of the lens as they took photos of each other riding a unicycle. In June, they submitted two photos they felt had just the right composition.

The boys soon learned that Corage’s photo of Pfeffer riding the unicycle was selected by the Jones Soda staff as a favorite and displayed on the website for people to cast their votes.

Both boys shared the website link on their Facebook pages and encouraged friends and family to vote.

Then, they waited.

In December, the JHS sophomore received the letter the neighborhood friends had hoped for. Corage’s photo of Pfeffer was chosen to be on an official Jones Soda label. With the letter, he received eight printed labels displaying the unique image.

“We didn’t think we were going to get picked because it had been so long,” remarked the photographer.

Corage’s name and hometown appears on the side of the label while Pfeffer’s unicycling skills are displayed on the bottle of the orange and cream soda flavor.

The boys shared the news with their family and friends. Pfeffer displayed the label as his profile picture on Facebook and Corage brought the label to school with him.

“Everyone was really happy for us,” said Corage

There is no compensation for the use of the photo, just the honor of having it chosen.

The two students feel lucky to have been selected because the letter that Corage received indicated only 1 percent of photos submitted actually get on a bottle.

Although they haven’t found any bottles with their original label yet, they patiently wait and continue to watch store shelves.

Sitka Corage is the son of Gary and Jennifer Brever and Jimmy Pfeffer is the son of Pete and Leigh Pfeffer.

Tags: life