On April 30th and May 1st, Upper Perkiomen High School hosted the production of the Every 30 Minutes program.
The program, under wrap at UPHS for almost a year, required many hours, volunteers and resources to drive home the important message of drunk driving prevention.
Run by the Faculty Action Committee, comprising 22 teachers, Every 30 Minutes began production after it was “pitched” by the school’s own science teacher, Mr. Michael Tirjan. After the Committee and Administration approved the project, teachers were broken into subcommittees, forming units in charge of various activities such as fundraising and organizing logistics of the project.
Mr. Scott Seip, chief of the Pennsburg Fire Company, served as a strong link to the community over the course of this project—allowing UPHS staff to work directly with the fire companies who donated their time, as did the Upper Perkiomen EMS, State Police, and Lehigh Valley Health Network.
Upper Perkiomen High School’s Ernest Quatrani, head of the videography portion of this program, said that he “easily spent 60 to 75 hours” on the project, which he, as the head of UPTV, also recruited student videographers for.
The teens, chosen for their experience with camera work, were a small portion of the student effort put into the Every 30 Minutes program. Actors, including Frankie Carpinello, Ronnie Gillespie, Natalie Janton, Jackie Meyers, Ben Ney, and Blaine Umstead, were hand-chosen by one of the teacher sub committees.
Carpinello was chosen for his “powers of influencing classmates.” After being called to guidance by Mr. Frank Mercon and informed of his role, Carpinello participated in four meetings, held “anywhere secretive.”
The recording of scenes at the morgue, emergency rooms, Mann-Slonaker Funeral Home, the Ney home, and Limerick State Police barracks took place in early April. Teams of teacher videographers handled those duties, and Mr. Quatrani edited the clips into part of the post-accident portion of the video.
The wrecked cars were staged in front of the high school on Sunday evening, April 29. Actors, emergency personnel, and video crews walked through the scene and practiced parts before the cars were covered with tarps.
Six cameras were used to record all of the accident aftermath on Monday, and seven hours were spent assembling the footage in the UPTV studio.
Meanwhile, the gym was being set-up for the Tuesday service and the committee ran through the steps of the memorial early Monday evening.
The actual accident and memorial service were by far the most difficult pieces for the student-actors, who were exceptionally convincing in their roles.
They were taken to a hotel overnight and cut off from all social networking.
The students and parents were coached on writing their farewell notes or letters of regret for what happened. The notes were read during the memorial.
With nearly 100 people involved, the project was one of enormous proportion for Upper Perkiomen High School. The many hours and efforts put into the Every 30 Minutes program came to a head May 1st, but, hopefully, will continue to remind students of the consequences of their decisions for the rest of their lives.