Every four years, Cascade High School teams up with the Liberty Township Fire Department to put on a program called "Every Fifteen Minutes." It is such an amazing program. They do it a couple of weeks before prom.

The purpose of this event is to dramatically instill teenagers with the potentially dangerous consequences of drinking alcohol and texting while driving. This powerful program will challenge students to think about drinking, texting while driving, personal safety, and the responsibility of making mature decisions when lives are involved. [source: http://www.every15minutes.com/]

This was such an emotional experience for me. I've lost several friends in car accidents, not all of them were alcohol related, but some were very recent. As I went throughout the day, I remembered these tragic events and it really hit home. I remember when we did this program when I was in high school and although I took it seriously, it didn't hit me as much as it did now that I'm older and have had these experiences. It seemed like a lot of the students really received the message that was given over the course of those two days when the event took place. I hope that they remember how it made them feel and that none of them will ever drink and drive and that those who do text and drive will stop and drive more responsibly.

Once I get the DVD that was compiled from the event, I'll try to load it on here as well. The second day of the event, it was shown to the students and staff and special speakers were brought in to tell their stories. The students involved in the mock-accident also addressed the audience, along with some other students who were taken by the grim reaper every fifteen minutes throughout the day. They read goodbye letters that they had written to their parents and one mother read the letter that she wrote to her son after hearing the news of his "death." This brought tears to just about every eye in the auditorium. I'm glad that the students could feel the affect of this event without having to deal with the actual experience of losing someone and I hope that they never find out what that feels like.

I'd like to thank everyone who was involved in making this event happen. It truly is an amazing program. (I'll get a list of names to personally thank on here as well.) I am so grateful that I was able to photograph this event.

Here are a few of the pictures...some of them were pretty graphic, so I chose to leave those off of the blog and I'll put an advisory on the video when I put it up.

To read more about what happens during this event, go to http://www.every15minutes.com/aboutus/
Every fifteen minutes, someone is killed in an alcohol-related accident. Don't become a statistic. Drive responsibly.