August 9, 2000
Teens focus of television PSA program
Take Two Video Project provides valuable public service announcements
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Partying heavily one night last April landed two teenage girls in heaps of trouble.
One of the girls, Jenny, then 15, almost died after chugging a huge quantity of alcohol in 10 minutes, a misguided attempt to be cool that she thought would be harmless. Instead, the slug of alcohol knocked her unconscious within five minutes, stopped her breathing and landed her in the hospital with a blood alcohol level of .275.
Given this, both girls feel lucky that a trip to court, probation, fines, counseling and community service are all they are facing. It could have easily been Jenny's funeral instead of Minor in Possession charges.
"We made poor decisions and it got out of hand," said Paula, 15, who saw her friend struggle for her life that night, and barely win. "I had to watch them restart my best friend's heart and she almost died a few times."
"When she passed out, our friends were saying, 'Oh, she'll have a hangover, put her to bed,' but she had stopped breathing and I knew we had to get her to the hospital. We had to carry her into the Emergency Room."
Paula and Jenny now know first-hand the perils of drinking and want to share their knowledge with other kids. They will get the chance to do this by participating in the Take Two Video Project, a pilot program that started three weeks ago at tctv2. Take Two offers juvenile offenders and other teens in the community a chance to share their story with others by turning their experiences into a public service announcement that will be a lesson for others.
"The thing is, you don't think it's going to happen to you," Jenny said. "You think you handled it last time so you drink more next time."
Both are hoping their 30-second message, which will start by showing kids partying and wind up in the Emergency Room, will make other kids their age think twice before drinking. They also believe it is a message that parents need to hear, many of whom may not know their kids are drinking or are afraid to ask.
"We also want to make it aware to parents that kids go out and drink and maybe they should talk to their kids about it," Jenny said.
Take Two Video Project was coordinated by Amy Cook, a social worker with Child and Family Services, who wanted to give youth offenders a more challenging and active alternative to traditional community service projects. She sought out Mike Kroes, tctv2 coordinator, to discuss her idea and found it dovetailed nicely with his desire to have young people more involved in public access television.
With the support of the Family Court and their referrals, the pilot program started three weeks ago with eight enrollees. In their weekly sessions, the students have learned the basics of how a television studio works, including operating a camera, lighting and staging.
Teaming into pairs, they have also chosen an idea for their public service announcement and roughed in a script, picked visual images and recruited friends for actors.
Both Cook and Kroes are very pleased with the enthusiasm and hard work of their students.
"It has been so exciting to see young people coming up with great ideas and then working hard together to make the public service announcement a reality," Cook said. "If all goes well with this pilot group we hope to offer this program on a regular basis."
They are also hoping that the spots will be picked up by other television stations in the area, giving the messages a wider audience.
Like Jenny and Paula, Justin, 15, picked a message that he knew first hand - drunk driving. While he was referred to the Take Two program for other reasons, Justin has seen other kids drive while after drinking alcohol many times.
"I think this message is important because I know people who have died from drunk driving," he said. "A lot of people just don't care, they drive drunk and they do it so much they think they can do it good."