Alex Paul
Some 17 SHHS students or recent graduates went to a drinking party in Sisters last Saturday.
Some of them were charged with Minor in Possession, another drank herself into alcohol poisoning and two others paid the ultimate price, after a head-on crash.
But, the good news is that all was for a good cause. And it was all fake.
The students helped make an anti drinking/substance abuse message for their Capital Conference sister school through the TAPs (Think Again Parents) program.
Eric Beckwith, TAP board chair said in a report explaining the project, “We have seen in the community recently is the perception that alcohol is OK for minors, as long as they are in their home supervised or just drinking alcohol and not doing other drugs. We want to change that community norm. What we want to do is open the community’s eyes to see that providing alcohol to minors, or saying it’s OK to drink under supervision of an adult is not OK anymore.”
The TAPs overall program slogan is “Think this couldn’t happen to your kid? Think again.”
Sweet Home students were used for the commercial so that local Sisters students would not be identified.
The commercial, to be aired through Central Oregon and perhaps on Oregon Public Broadcasting, was filmed by Fluid Images, a nationally-known production company that has worked on such big screen hits as Titanic. The company donated the cost of production time and charge TAPs only for crew members time.
SHHS drama director Dan Thompson said he was overwhelmed by the project.
“It was a kick of an experience for the kids,” said Thompson, who will soon enter his 30th years of teaching and play production. “Everyone was so good with the kids. It was very interesting to see all of the equipment used and needed to make a commercial.”
Thompson was also pleased by the amount of praise the local students received.
“They told Jesse Aitken he should consider acting,” Thompson said.
Local actors involved in the production were Sharlene Vandenburg, Lyndsey Schaefer, Tarale Wolffee, Tashina Davis, Zuri VanCleave, Jill Wilson, Cheyenne Smith, Matt Maloney, Nicole Gould, Lyndsey Aitken, Marissa Lehman, Justine Pearson, Cody Sanders, Jesse Aitken, Alex Wilson and Tim McAdams.
The flow of the commercial starts with a young people sitting around a campfire.
There was a flirtatious couple, a girl with a baby, younger kids and older teens.
Soon the scenes turn serious with one teen receiving an MIP charge, a young girl suffering with alcohol poisoning and two teens crashing with visual effects in slow motion.
“They hope to have the commercial in the can in two to three weeks,” Thompson said.
Numerous Sisters area agencies participated in the event including the local sheriff’s office, the U.S. Forest Service, the fire department and EMTs.
Jesse Aitken said the experience was outstanding but added it took some getting used to doing numerous retakes of the same scene.
Aitken was excited that the commerical could be shown statewide over OPB stations.