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Late last week, I received a phone call at the Chronicle from a young lady who is a senior at Iowa-Grant High School. Her name was Jaynie Rule, and she wanted to invite me to come to Iowa-Grant High School's mock accident, which would happen on Monday afternoon.
She explained that there would be a few other activities before the mock accident happened at 1:30 p.m., and I could attend those as well if I wanted. She never once mentioned that students, and one student in particular, had spearheaded the organization of the entire day.
I arrived at Iowa-Grant High School at quarter to one, and entered the gymnasium, where two ladies from the "Just Drive" campaign were presenting to all of the high school students. They warned of the dangers of distracted driving, and even though some of their demonstrations were comical, there is nothing funny about the possible consequences of texting and driving.
After their presentation, Jaynie introduced several students who are also gold medal winners this year at State Forensics. They each performed readings that related to drunk driving - after the first student read her poem, you could have heard a pin drop in there!
The students then walked up to the upper parking lot where a car could be seen under a school bus. A student could also be seen protruding from the windshield - it was later noted that the student had died in this fictious scenario, as emergency personnel wrapped him in a body bag in front of the entire student body. The message was powerful.
Emergency personnel stuck around after the mock accident to answer questions for students. A BIG THANK YOU to those who volunteered on Monday to help educate students in our communities. Too often it can take only seconds for lives to change - and not just lives of family and friends, but lives of the responders who arrive on the scene to assist.
However, I wanted to dedicate the biggest THANK YOU to Ms. Jaynie Rule, who finally told me that it was her idea to put the whole day together. With prom and graduation coming up this month, she wanted to share this powerful message with the student body as a reminder of how quickly life can change.
There are many moments in this line of work that am I really proud of our area's youth. Monday was definitely one of those days.
I'm so proud of you, Jaynie, and good luck in your future endeavors.