Freeport, Leechburg and Fox Chapel high schools notch wins with anti-drug videos

Three Alle-Kiski area high schools continued their winning streaks for their work promoting awareness about opioid abuse.

Freeport, Fox Chapel and Leechburg all placed again during the annual 2018-2019 FBI Pittsburgh Division’s HOPE (Heroin Outreach Prevention and Education) PSA contest.

The contest, sponsored by the Pittsburgh Penguins Foundation, aims to raise opioid use awareness among high school students in Western Pennsylvania.

The competition launched in 2015 with four high schools participating. This year more than 30 high school student teams submitted video entries.

Recent FBI statistics show Pennsylvania has a rate of 44.3 drug overdose deaths per 100,000 residents—more than double the national average.

Freeport Area and Leechburg Area placed first and second respectively in the People’s Choice categories, while Fox Chapel placed third in the Judge’s Choice category.

People’s Choice winners were selected by the public voting online — with social media “likes” and “shares” earning points for each school.

First place in the Judge’s Choice category went to South Fayette High School, with Forest Hills High School taking second.

The two first place winners each will get a $5,000 cash grant, ten tickets to a Pittsburgh Penguins VIP party suite and participation in an “FBI Agent For a Day” experience at the FBI Pittsburgh field office.

Freeport Area has won for three consecutive years in the People’s Choice category, video teacher Tawnya Lunz said.

“It was a very good feeling to win this contest knowing the importance of the heroin and opioid epidemic,” said Freeport senior David Malecki. “It’s good to know our message has been making waves throughout the community in the hopes of combating this crisis. Having won the last two years, we knew we had to maintain very high expectations. I am thankful to be on the team to make such an important and impactful video.”

Leechburg’s new video club advisor, Tanya Sherbondy, said the students were thrilled to place again.

“The students are excited to win because they worked hard, think it’s a good cause, gave up about a week of their own time to produce the video and absolutely made a strong push on social media to get votes on social media.”

Leechburg won $2,500 for placing second, Sherbondy said, adding the grant will be used exclusively for video/media department needs, such as updating older equipment to make it compatible with newer equipment.

Leechburg Area Superintendent Tiffany Nix appreciates the community’s support.

“We are really proud of the work that our students created for the opioid addiction video,” Nix said. “Every year they continue to be amazing. We are also grateful to the community for their continued support to make this happen. We needed their votes to win and they always take the time to vote.”

Fox Chapel multimedia teacher Ryan Devlin encouraged multimedia student Grace Han to create another video after winning second place last year. Han, a junior, has her own YouTube channel and won $1,500 for her school with her video theme “Myths NOT to Live By.”

“Grace worked by herself but had several friends act in her video,” Devlin said. “We haven’t decided how we will spend the money yet, but it will be something that benefits the multimedia program here at the high school.”

This year’s theme, “Speak Out To Save Lives,” asked teams to create a one-to-three-minute video.

Most participating schools made due with a limited or no budget, casting students as actors, directors, editors and writers.

Watch the videos

Winning entries from Freeport Area, Leechburg Area and Fox Chapel Area high schools in the FBI’s opioid awareness contest can be viewed here:

Freeport Area: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwO734laP5A

Fox Chapel Area: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMfkxZUYQYI

Leechburg Area: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCCsIxTCO9g

Joyce Hanz is a freelance writer.