A group of OHS students currently in Mr. Matt Olson’s interactive multimedia class are finalists for KARE 11’s 2019 Eyes Up PSA Challenge. Seniors Thomas Lehrer, Luke Kubicek, Bradyn Larson and Andrew Munns spent class time to create a 15-second video centering on the awful outcome that can occur with texting while driving. The KARE Staff recently narrowed it down to the top 11 after receiving 49 entries from across Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

With a little less than a month to complete the project, the students tackled it head-on. Interestingly enough, the students weren’t the only ones treading in new territory. Mr. Olson was new to this activity as well and was tasked with giving the students a timeline to checking in on their progress with the project. He said, “I didn’t know what to expect going in. It’s a great surprise for this to have happened.” Although it is a short video, a lot of work went into it. The students first bounced around ideas before deciding on what they felt was their winning topic. They then spent time filming, editing and reviewing the video prior to submitting their final product. Each of the 11 winning PSAs will air on KARE 11 throughout the summer and into the fall of 2019. Amongst these 11, the top three PSAs will receive a cash prize of $1,100 to be used by the winning schools to help promote distraction-free driving in their school and community.

All PSA entries had to be submitted with a 500-word essay on how the money would be utilized within the community. With the money, the OHS students wanted to do things such as bring a speaker in, hang posters around the school and bring in a wrecked car to represent the consequences of distracted driving to students and community members. Kubicek said, “We wanted to participate because we all felt it was important to educate people, especially our peers, on these serious dangers.” The voting for the PSA challenge closes on Sunday, May 12. Help support the participants and potentially bring a positive impact to the community by viewing and voting for the OHS students’ entry here.