It wasn't real - this time
Photos and text By Jennifer Archibald

The Every 15 Minutes program is held every three years at the two local high schools. The names and faces of the student participants are different, but the message is the same: Every 15 minutes someone is killed by a drunk driver.

The message is delivered through a realistic and emotional outdoor scenario. Students watch as a wreck scene is revealed. Sirens can be heard as emergency and law enforcement personnel arrive upon a bloody scene. Students in the vehicles are taken out on stretchers and some, in body bags. The witnessing students recognize the victims as their friends and classmates.

The consequences of driving drunk are apparent at the scene: a drunk driver arrested, others injured and killed, family members devastated. The scene wasn't real, but the emotions and feelings were.

It took a school and whole community, working since last January, to make the experience meaningful for all involved.

This year's participants in the wreck scene were Chase Meade, Justin Brown, Emma Cottrell, Riley Eller, and Kelsie Thornburg. Additional students were taken out of class every 15 minutes, and became the Walking Dead.

All the effort that goes into this event is expended for one reason - that those who were involved and those who were witnesses will never become a drunk driver and will never become a drunk driving statistic.