Department of Motor Vehicles
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 4, 2011
Teens Celebrated for Bringing Safe Driving to the Forefront
100 Percent Increase in Videos Submitted Compared to Last Year
More than 160 teams, a 100 percent increase from last year, submitted entries of video public service announcements. Among those entries, a top 10 list was selected, and Monday night the three ranking prize winners were announced.
This year’s winners came from
“We saw a record increase in videos submitted for this year’s contest and that speaks to the growing interest in community, teen and school involvement in promoting safe driving,” said DMV Commissioner Melody Currey who helped judge the finalist videos. “Promoting safe driving is so important and these videos show that students across the state understand the responsibility that comes with driving and are willing to help spread the message of teens talking to teens.”
“We are greatly pleased to support this contest because it provides an effective, compelling way for young people to hear important messages about safe driving directly from their peers," said Doreen Spadorcia, Executive Vice President and CEO of Claim Services and Personal Insurance for
Travelers hosted the awards ceremony at its
Make the Right Choice
This year’s contest focused on Teen Safe Driving – Make the Right Choice. Teen drivers are faced with many difficult decisions when driving and these public service announcements serve as a reminder to teens to make the right choice when it comes to speeding, talking on cell phones and a number of other practices behind the wheel.
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 how making the right choice promotes 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 Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, the Connecticut Department of Transportation, the Connecticut Police Chief’s Association, the Connecticut State Police, Mourning Parents Act, Inc. (!MPACT), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, St.
Winning Student Teams
Other awards and recognition were also made during this year’s ceremonies.
The
Prize ($1,000 in total) - $500 to each teacher for use in providing a teen safe driving program
Robin Fox, Coginchaug Regional (
They are the only two schools who have made the final round of judging in all three years of the contest and their respective teachers for each of the three years.
The Travelers Challenge
Prize - $1,000 to the school to use in providing a teen safe driving program
!IMPACT and The
Prize - $500 to the school to use in providing a teen safe driving program
The
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Recognition Award to Principals
Certificates
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is willing to give certificates again, as it did last year, to the principals of the top 10 schools.
The University of Hartford School of Communication Award to Student Directors and High Schools for Ranking Top 10 for Video Communication Excellence
Certificates only. Goes to all top 10.
Given to top 10 student directors and their team members for video excellence and messaging in the video.
A total of seven teams of finalists also received gift baskets from Travelers and certificates from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the University of Hartford School of Communication.
A panel of judges representing highway safety advocates that included Governor Dannel P. Malloy and
Videos of the three winning teams, runners-up and finalists can be viewed on DMV’s YouTube site at: http://www.youtube.com/teensafedriving12
The following are the top-prize ranking videos based on judges’ review of overall impact, originality and cinematic style:
· First Place went to Austin Begin (student director) and Cam Lecce of
· Second Place went to Lee Brake (student director), Page Burns, Madison Horner, Caroline Regan, Kaley Roberts and Kendall Roberts of
· Third Place went to Antonio Collazo (student director), Joshua Bonilla, Alexander Carroll, Gage Chandler and Brendan Hughes of
Remaining 7 Finalists
· Arts at the Capitol Theater in Willimantic – Caleb Newell (student director), Jeffrey Garland, Ben Newell, Chris Richard and Josh Winiarski. (YouTube video link: http://www.youtube.com/teensafedriving12#p/f/3/k-x40kZ8ryw )
·
·
· Danbury High School – Alexander Ferrante (student director), John Carreiro, Louis Cerone, Carmine Dominicus, Michael Duncan, Anthony Hanna and Christopher Medeiros. (YouTube video link: http://www.youtube.com/teensafedriving12#p/f/7/fvk-1oFDoIQ )
·
· Daniel Hand High School in Madison – Brett Gelino (student director), Alyssa Burlakoff, Austin Carretta, Brent Crawford, Vance Giarratana, AJ Hill, Corey Michaud, Julia Miller, Eddy O’Neill, Tyler Riccio, Ashleigh Sweetman, Cory Sweitzer and Jordan Taggart. (YouTube video link: http://www.youtube.com/teensafedriving12#p/f/4/cz_L9BbiWM0 )
· The Williams School in
List of All Entries in the DMV Teen Video Contest by School and Student Director
Below is a list of all the directors who submitted a 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 three top winners. Two asterisks (**) next to a student director’s name indicates that the entry was one of the seven finalists in the contest.
American School for the Deaf,
Kaitlin Merriam
Courtney Keating
Connor Foster
Arts at the Capitol Theater, Willimantic (2 entries)
Caleb Newell**
Megan Nelson
Brandon Holroyd
Christian Palmer
Katherine Williams
Richard Haas
Michaela Roman
David Camille
Jerome Hill
Kyle Burke
Marshall Fuller
Emma Roth
Eva Hanks
Daniel Hand High School, Madison (11 entries)
Ryan Daniels
Jordan Barnaby
Troy Hagan
Anna White
Riley Kirsch
Adrianna Baker
East Lyme High School,
Bryce Elijah
Austin Begin*
Sean Lambert
Lee Brake*
Tim Farina
Patrick Dunbar
Jake Palmer
Sean Murphy
Matt Rosin
Bailey Norman
Meghan Silva
Ashley Garnett
Killingly High School, Danielson (1 entry)
Hunter Lyon
Samuel Baker
Sara Peterson
James Harrison
Chase Churchill
Connor McManus
Corey Florin
Colin Cleary
Evan Ortiz
Andrew Rock
Eric Lowe
Jared Ensling
Tanya Webster
Amanda Crowe
Joseph Bryan
Nick Burns
Chris Lyons
Nick Wingate
Zach Anderson
The
Andrea Goldstein
Katie Tyler
Wesley Duncan
Emily Maroni
Lucas Whitelaw
Dan Coffey
Max Dolan
Claire Nelson
Matthew Mooers
Katharine Evans
Tripp Cottrell
Rhys Kiernan
Ron Denny
Matthew Frankel
Brian Sticht
Ruthcecelia Whitworth
Tanner Cleary
Patrick Dwyer
Olivia Powers
Darin Keyes
Gabriella Raccio
Tania Lima