FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 12, 2012

Watch the 2012 contest's top-10 videos on DMV's Teen Safe Driving YouTube Channel

WINDSOR – Highway safety advocates, state and other officials honored teens from across Connecticut on Thursday evening for their work to promote safe driving during the fourth annual Department of Motor Vehicles’ teen safe driving video contest, From the Driver’s Seat to the Director’s Chair.

This year’s winners came from Norwich Free Academy (first place), East Haven High School (second place), Hall High School of West Hartford (third and fourth places) and Darien High School (fifth place). 

More than 100 student teams participated this year from 25 different schools and submitted entries of video public service announcements. In addition to the five ranking prize winners, teachers at two schools – Arts at the Capitol Theater (Willimantic) and Coginchaug Regional (Durham) – were honored for having students’ videos rank each consecutive year in the contest’s Top 10.

The winning schools will share in a $15,000 cash prize provided by Travelers, which hosted the awards ceremony at its flagship Claim U facility in Windsor Connecticut. Travelers donated prizes and gifts to the students and high schools of the top 10 videos.

“This video contest continues to be a fun and popular competition that allows high school students to showcase their creative talents and communicate an extremely important safe driving message to peers,” DMV Commissioner Melody A. Currey said.

“Communities can have a positive influence on young and inexperienced drivers, and this year’s contest theme allowed teens to illustrate ways a community can help promote safe and responsible driving.  Congratulations to all the students who participated in this year’s contest.” 

“We are pleased to support this contest and we applaud all of the participants,” said Doreen Spadorcia, Travelers Vice Chairman. “The videos raise awareness for not only the importance of safe driving, but also the significant role and shared responsibility that parents, educators, administrators and community members have in reinforcing the safe driving message.” 

This year’s contest theme was: Teen Safe Driving – How a Community Helps to Make Teens Safe Drivers.

Videos had to illustrate a specific community effort to help prevent crashes, injuries and deaths among 16- and 17-year-olds, who are the state’s youngest and most inexperienced drivers.

To enter this year’s DMV contest, high school students were asked to direct, shoot and edit a 25-second PSA. The video had to illustrate the community’s influence to promote driving safety among teens.

The DMV, Travelers and other safety advocates plan to use the videos submitted in a variety of outreach programs that it conducts as well as offer them to schools, businesses, government agencies, advocacy groups and other partners in teen safe driving.

Promotional sponsors of the contest include the Connecticut Police Chief’s Association; the Connecticut State Police; Mourning Parents Act (!MPACT), a bereaved parents group); the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center; Yale-New Haven Hospital; Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center; The Connecticut Association of Schools; the state Department of Public Health; The state Department of Insurance, the state Department of Transportation; the state Division of Criminal Justice and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

DMV started the contest in 2008 following its lead in crafting tougher teen driving laws, including longer passenger restrictions and curfews as well as increased penalties for violations and added training requirements.

Norwich Free Academy will receive $5,000 for first place, East Haven High School will receive $4,000 for second place, Hall High School in West Hartford will receive $3,000 and $2,000 for third place and fourth place, and Darien High School will receive $1,000 for fifth. In addition, first-place students will each receive a Kindle Fire and a $50 gift card as additional prizes from Travelers.

Other awards and recognition were also made during this year’s ceremonies.

The St. Francis Care Award to Schools and Teachers for Earning a Top-10 Finish in Every Year of the Contest

Prize ($1,000 in total) - $500 to each teacher for use in providing a teen safe driving program

Robin Fox, Coginchaug Regional (Durham), and Dan Boisvert, Arts at the Capitol Theater (Willimantic)

They are the only two schools that have made the final round of judging in all four years of the contest and are the respective teachers for each of the four years.

Prize - $1,000 to the school to use in providing a teen safe driving program

Travelers awarded $1,000 to Hall High School in West Hartford for its “Don’t Text and Drive” video in the 2012 contest's top 10 list that garnered the most views by midnight April 12 on the DMV Center for Teen Safe Driving YouTube site. The school came in with nearly 3,800 views.

Prize - $500 to the school to use in providing a teen safe driving program

!MPACT and CCMC awarded the prize to Hall High School in West Hartford for its “Don’t Text and Drive” video. 

Prize - $500 to the school to use in providing a teen safe driving program

Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital awarded the prize to East Haven High School. 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration gave certificates again, as it did the last two years, to the principals of the top 10 schools.

All 10 finalist teams received certificates from Governor Dannel P. Malloy and Commissioner Currey, as well as gift baskets from Travelers.

A panel of judges representing highway safety advocates that included Governor Malloy and Travelers representatives Doreen Spadorcia, Travelers Vice Chairman and Andy Bessette, Travelers Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer selected the winners as well as finalists from the entries.

Videos of the five winning teams and finalists can be viewed on DMV’s YouTube site at: http://www.youtube.com/teensafedriving12.

Parents and teens should also visit www.Travelers.com/teendrivingcontest to view the videos and helpful information and resources for teen driving

The following are the top-prize ranking videos based on judges’ review of overall impact, originality and cinematic style:

First Place went to Patrick Kudej (student director), Anna Kudej, Frankie Lee and Austin Lee of Norwich Free Academy. (YouTube video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBQt_GBt_ZI&feature=BFa&list=PL0AC7246F590060C2&lf=plpp_video ) 

Second Place went to Sean Dugan, Michael Brainerd, Kristin Page, Shannon Bailey, Paisley Chase, Amber Williams, Ashley Porrazzo, Kaleigh Ciscone, Michael Hill, Rebecca Womble, Joanna Kisiel, Kyle Bennet, Juan Orozco, Kennedy Meadows, Elise Tomasello, Adrianna Tomasello and Dominique Delucia of East Haven High School. (YouTube video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z3nOqEa46Q&feature=BFa&list=PL0AC7246F590060C2&lf=plpp_video)

Third Place went to Allison Bellucci (student director), Josh Chozick, Noam Kessing of Hall High School of West Hartford.  (YouTube video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw0YpTHghvA&feature=BFa&list=PL0AC7246F590060C2&lf=plpp_video)

Fourth Place went to Rob Sechtman (student director), Aaron Lang, Samantha Bechard, Alex Palliardi, Ritesh Hamal, Steven Tang, Remy Gaulin, and Patrick Keegan of Hall High School of West Hartford. (YouTube video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Kx1BYEHTxo&feature=BFa&list=PL0AC7246F590060C2&lf=plpp_video)

Fifth Place went to Haley Close (student director) and Sloane Clarke of Darien High School and Depot SADD Chapter. (YouTube video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDGC-infdTM&feature=BFa&list=PL0AC7246F590060C2&lf=plpp_video)

Remaining Five (5) Finalists

Arts at the Capitol Theater in Willimantic – Kristen Corriveau (student director), Leah Broadwell, Jessica Haney, Jackie D. Smith, Chris Richard, Spencer Burnham, Pheylin Prue and Mary Katherine Johnson. (YouTube video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuXlpzUA3f0&list=PL0AC7246F590060C2&index=1&feature=plpp_video)

Coginchaug Regional in Durham – Grant Willis (student director), Tommy Schock, Ryan Rausch and Kristofer Copeland. (YouTube video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fref1gSqMBs&feature=BFa&list=PL0AC7246F590060C2&lf=plpp_video)

Daniel Hand in Madison – Maia Smith (student director), Brian Jackson, Luke Edwards, Josh DeMartino, Sean Scoopo and Jack Pascale. (YouTube video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts_jL1LvvsM&feature=BFa&list=PL0AC7246F590060C2&lf=plpp_video)

Hall High School in West Hartford – Henry Stein (student director), Conor Langan, Ethan Schaefer, Dylan Crory, Anthony Galburt, Kenny Fleming, Connor Cunningham, Chase Fiedler and Chris Ahlquist. (YouTube video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlJc8XbmVHw&feature=BFa&list=PL0AC7246F590060C2&lf=plpp_video)

Manchester High School – Jasmyn Spann (student director), Dhurata Lluhani, Michelle Rossignol, Freddy Sanchez, Carly Adduci, Paul Maloney, Patrick Silver, Ariana Lenetis and Hunter Grab.  (YouTube video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0YVbrKqGeE&feature=youtu.be)

Below is a list of all the directors who submitted a qualifying video entry. Only the student director is listed below, although most video contest entries came from a group effort by students. The number listed after each high school represents the number of entries submitted from that school. An asterisk (*) next to a student director’s name signifies that the entry was one of the five top winners. Two asterisks (**) next to a student director’s name indicates that the entry was one of the five finalists in the contest.

List of all entries in the DMV Teen Video Contest by School and Student Director

Daniel Araujo

Patrick John Blair

Spencer Burnham

Kristen Corriveau**

Megan Nelson

Jeline Buchwald

Daniyal Khan

Brendan Hughes

Aaron Martinez

Bailey Norman

Kaylee Powers

Nick Tyc

Grant Wllis**

Abby Adelman

Richard Griffith

Maia Smith**

Elaine Zuchos

Lilly Boe

Haley Close*

Abby Leinroth

Sean Dugan*

Matt Binaco

Amanda Hart

Sean Lambert

Chase Livingston

Kaley Roberts

Ethan Miller

Kyle Wilkinson

Simon Wechsler

Sherry Yang

Allison Bellucci*

Connor Dexter

Alex Greenhaigh

Rob Sechtman*

Henry Stein**

Andrew Isaacs

Paul Maloney

Jasmyn Spann**

Daniel Cardi

Christopher Strachan

Tyler Weed

Kathleen Dooling

Luke Anderson

Max Bourgeois

Gabriella Boyle

Alex Bradt

Chase Churchill

Brian Fisher

Gregory Fisher

Catherine Flanagan

Corey Florin

James Harrison

Samantha Jankowski

Kevin Jurkiewicz

Karly Mack

Aidan Panagresso

Matthew Pivarnik

Cody Thuesen

Ben Marshall

Jared Ensling

Kaila Galinat

Patrick Kudej*

Karissa Daly

Luis White

Katie Kaminski

Anna Marini

Stephanie Laska

Keith Congden

Jake Peterson

Lindsay Grote

Ricky Crespo

Dylan Dineen

Michael Kiaunis

Julianna Brown

Adam Collins

Zachary Dameron

Olivia Denison

Alex Dorr

Gia Eapen

Jaren Farelli

Lise Freitas

Aidan Garrity

Douglas Hamilton

Marissa Lynch

Andrew Meagher

Kimberly Meneo

Yale Tucker Norman

Ross Patterson

Nathan Perkins

Leah Pieniadz

Elizabeth Reiser

Oliver Sherman

Elijah Singer

Parker Verhoeff

John Weaver

Tristan Yerkes