On Tuesday, August 16th, members of the Fieldcrest FOCUSED group were guests of honor at the Secretary of State’s Office tent during the State Fair. The morning started off with a press conference with Jesse White, congratulating the group on become a top ten school in the nation for grant program, Project Ignition. Project Ignition is sponsored by State Farm and coordinated by the National Youth Leadership Council. The grant announced in late May that Fieldcrest High School would join nine other schools across the nation, to make the Tier II schools. Tier II schools receive funding for the next year along with a travel stipend to attend the National Youth Leadership Convention in April 2012.
After receiving word that Fieldcrest was part of Tier II, the members brainstormed on how their efforts could be collaborated with other schools, not only within the State of Illinois but across the nation. In early January of this year, the school had the opportunity to work with Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Joshua Zilm, a Fieldcrest graduate and the show’s field producer, approached the group with his proposal.
“He asked us if we would be willing to take the pledge not to text and drive, with the opportunity to be featured on the television” says Sheila Healy, sponsor of the group. The show was about the Brown family who had lost their daughter in a texting while driving accident and the show wanted to make sure that Alex Brown would be remembered.
“The day that we filmed our segment for the show, we had close to 400 students and staff take the pledge not to text and drive” says Healy.
“Remembering how Alex Brown’s story had effected us, our group decided that we would collect 15,000 pledges of people to not text and drive,” says Braiden Skinner, former president of the group (2010-2011).
“We have had amazing support from our communities and the staff at our school,” says Healy. “Our 16 foot pledge wall, which we are collecting the pledges on, was built by one of our custodians at the school.”
Since beginning their campaign on July 1st, the group has obtained close to 1,500 pledges against texting while driving including: Secretary of State Jesse White, Cubs owner Tom Ricketts, the Peoria Chiefs baseball team, Peoria Chiefs owners Rocky & Pete Vonachen and countless teens and adults. Close to 600 people alone came to sign the pledge during the State Fair.
Anyone willing to take the pledge online can visit www.fieldcrestfocused.com and click on the “Take the Pledge” tab on the top of the screen.
The group would like to thank the Secretary of State’s Office for the great opportunity of attending the fair, and working together to make the roads of Illinois safer.
