You can decide to end a life.
Or, if you choose not to drink and drive, that decision can save a life.
That's the message a group of Duchess Park secondary students want their fellow students to gain from watching a video that's made the top-five list in a British Columbia Automobile Association Dry Grad Challenge contest.
Titled "Consequences," the two-minute 28-second video focuses on a teenaged driver who is shown drinking alcohol at the wheel of a car while her friend rides along with her in the passenger seat, also drinking. Their car collides with another vehicle and the impact kills the passenger.
The day after the accident, the young driver returns to the halls of Duchess Park, where she's met by a group of students, each holding up a one-word sign that forms a sentence as the girl walks up the stairs and down a hallway.
"When you drink and drive, you're not the only one at risk."
The girl, played by Grade 12 student Tianna Peters, then walks into the empty school auditorium where an image of her dead friend is projected on the screen with the words, "Rest in Peace."
The row of students then appears onstage to form the sentence, "You can decide to end a life." One other student hands the teen driver a one-word card and she walks down to join the line of card holders to cover up the word "end" and replace it with the word "save."
The video is the brainchild of Duchess Park students Cana Donovan and Kiara Goldenberg, who learned Monday their dry grad project made the top five, out of 48 submissions. It includes an original song, written and performed by Paige Ellerton of Golden, a friend of Peters.
"We're trying to get awareness out there for drunk driving and try to stop it because there are so many people that do it," said Goldenberg, a Grade 12 leadership student.
If they can gather the most votes over the next week in an online poll at www.bcaa.com/campaigns/drygrad, they will win the top prize of $4,000, to be used for dry grad activities. The second-place vote-getter will win $2,000, while third-place gets $1,000.
Although it was filmed at Duchess Park, the video project was not part of any regular school activity.
"Honestly, we didn't think we'd do that well, especially with so many submissions," said Goldenberg. "We just thought it would be a fun thing to do.
"Currently we're in the top five, and voting is on until Dec. 12. We hope it bring our graduating class more together during dry grad. Hopefully we'll win, it would be nice to have that money for our dry grad."
