“Words to be Heard”
Edgar Snyder & Associates Scholarship Contest
Kelly Kaminski
What my program addresses: My program addresses the reasons why teenagers drink and specializes on the devastating causes of drinking and driving.
Introduction: For my program I would have a three-step approach. In the following essay I will describe them in three separate sections. The first is the introductory speech which be read by an adult around the age of 20. The second part of the program is a slideshow presentation which can be found in the attached CD-Rom. The third part of the program is the demonstration and concluding statement from the speaker.
Speaker opens up: There are many reasons why teenagers choose to drink, but none of these reasons are acceptable. Your parents drink, so you drink…all of my friends do…I just want to take a risk…These reasons are stupid. There are the facts: 3,490 drivers age 15-20 died in car crashes in 2006. Drivers age 15-20 accounted for 12.9 percent of all the drivers involved in fatal crashes and 16 percent of all the drivers involved in police-reported crashes in 2006. According to NHTSA, 31 percent of the teen drivers killed in 2006 had been drinking, and 25 percent had a blood alcohol concentration of .08 or higher. By now you are all tired of hearing over and over the statistics about the consequences of drinking and driving. If you’re tired of being preached about it then stop doing it. I know there are so many reasons why. {Address poster 1} You all either drink for self-gratification, pressure, or for relief. But none of these reasons are good enough. The consequences are catastrophic. You may be fine the first time, second time, fifth, twentieth, but it will end. Everything starts out as fun but lives are in your hands, and not just yours, but your friends, family, and the innocent people you pass on the street. {Address Book} These books are full of testimonies from people that have been affected by drinking. Take a look. Do you want to be one of the people that they write in memory of, or one of the people they write about who killed their loved ones?
Next, play the slideshow and make sure that speakers are on. This slideshow should be played along with the attached Audio CD which contains the song How to Save a Life by The Fray. Play until the CD reaches 2:06. This will conclude the PowerPoint, and then play the video.
A group of students would then go through an interrogation with a police officer who had "pulled them over for drinking." After their interrogation there would be a mock trial with a judge who sentences them. The students must also then talk to the parents of the kid that they killed from drinking and driving. At the conclusion of this activity the speaker would tell the students how they feel passionate about drinking consequences because…they were previously convicted for drinking when they were a teenager. The speaker would then share their own personal story. This would conclude the program.
The Overall Effect of the Program: This program would have a positive effect on students because it would give them the facts in the beginning, true testimonies, a movie in the middle, a firsthand experience with a real life situation through the mock arrest to mock prosecution, and finally they would be bewildered that the person that preached had been a drinker. They would see all the negative consequences but also that you can do something about it and be a good person.
