Broken Dreams

I just wanted to share an awesome project that I am blessed enough to be a part of. It's for work, and I love my job, and that's pretty neat. ;-) South Windsor Youth and Family Services and the South Windsor Alliance for Families puts on this program called Broken Dreams at the high school every 2 years for Juniors and Seniors. (Sorry for the run-on, my grammar senses are tingling!) There's a lot involved in it, including kids being pulled from class by an officer who reads an obituary that their parents wrote for them- they represent the kids around the nation killed in drunk driving crashes. They return to class but can't talk for the rest of the day.
A bigger part of Broken Dreams, though, is a video that a select group of kids write and make. Well, we hire a filmmaker so it rocks, but they write the script, act it and plan most of it out themselves. then the other juniors and seniors watch it in an assembly. Usually it involves some high schoolers making bad decisions and the consequences of those decisions. I got to watch the filming of the crash scene a few weeks ago and my goodness, it was amazing! There were professional make up artists who made the kids look all banged up, with glass shards and bones protruding, black and blue marks, and lots and lots of blood. Then the PD actually found some smashed up cars and shut down an entire road in town to set up the "crash." Finally, 3 ambulances, fire trucks, and more police cars were on the scene to film their response to the crash. Sirens, jaws-of-life, gurneys, the works.
Not only did the kids do an incredible job acting, (I was crying at one point until a cop made a joke next to me and I pulled myself together.) I was amazed by how willing all those departments were to make this happen! If we can save one life, either this year during prom/graduation season, or later down the road with one of the kids who sees the video stopping from making a bad decision, then it's so worth it!