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I. SPREADING THE WORD

A West Bloomfield
High School anti-drug
message may earn
national recognition.

LISA JACKNOW ELLIAS

Special to The Jewish News

teenage girl, wearing
her boyfriend's varsity
jacket, approaches a
grave. Accompanied by a
friend, she kneels to place
flowers, looks at a ring on her
finger and kisses it. Her
friend helps her up and they
slowly walk away.

A

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A scene from a soap opera?
No, it's an anti-drug pub-
lic service announcement
created by three students at
West Bloomfield High School.
Instead of a name, the tomb-
stone on the grave says
"Everlasting Friendships
Marred by Drugs and Alcohol
Leave an Everlasting Effect."
A voice at the end of the an-
nouncement repeats the
message.
The public service an-
nouncement is part of a
school project produced by
Jennifer Ehrlich, 17, Lowell
Friedman, 18, and Jennifer
Goldman, 17, all seniors at
West Bloomfield High. The
students are in the advanced
marketing class and mem-
bers of the Distributive
Education Clubs of America
(DECA), taught by Jerry
Whitlock. Their project won
top honors in DECA's state
competition and is competing
for national awards in
California April 28.
The three students planned
their undertaking as a por-
tion of a required assignment.
From a variety of topics and
types of ventures, they chose
a public consciousness pro-
ject. At a brainstorming ses-
sion, Goldman conceived the
idea of making an anti-drug
statement.
"We decided this after
President Bush made his
speech against drugs,"Ehrlich
said. "Drugs are one of our
biggest problems. It's not the
biggest problem in our high
school, but it is affecting peo-
ple."
The three wrote a script and
drew pictures of the gravesite.
They found the perfect spot at
Pine Lake Cemetery and

drafted Randy Long, head
video technician for the West
Bloomfield School District, to
shoot the film. Two students
from the DECA class, Marlo
Asher and David Castello,
portrayed the characters.
"After it was done, we wrote
to local television stations,"
Ehrlich said. "It appeared on
the local cable station (Chan-
nel 35), and channels 2, 4, and
50 said they may show it in
the future."
The completion of the
public service announcement
was only the beginning of the
project. With a 50-page paper
due, the students had to come
up with something else.
"We had to do something to
supplement the video," Fried-
man said. "So we came up
with a fund-raising cam-
paign."
The trio talked to Al
Dicken, substance abuse
counselor at the high school.
He recommended donating
money to West Bloomfield
Families in Action, a
volunteer group concerned
with drugs and alcohol.
"We wanted the money to
go toward a scholarship for
rehabilitation," Friedman
said. "First, we had the idea
to sell buttons. Then we decid-
ed, because this was a civic
consciousness project, that we
would give the buttons away
for contributions. We thought
that would be our best chance
to make the most money.
Also, the idea behind the but-
tons was that people would
wear them to promote our
message. All the members of
the DECA classes — about
110 students — gave buttons
to anyone who donated $1 or
more. One parent gave us
$100."
The buttons were purchas-
ed with funds raised through
other DECA projects, Fried-
man said. That way, the
students were able to donate
all the money the buttons
brought in.
"We bought 1,000 buttons
and gave out 700 to 800,"
Ehrlich said. "A lot of people
just donated money but didn't
want the button. We raised

Jennifer Ehrlich, Jennifer Goldman and Lowell Friedman read their script.

$1,180, and donated every
penny."
The students made up a
giant check and presented it
to West Bloomfield Families
in Action at a recent meeting.
"We accomplished a good
deed," Ehrlich said.
They weren't the only ones
who were proud. When the
trio proposed their project,
teacher Jerry Whitlock was
afraid it would be too much
for them to handle.
"I was scared at first — I
thought they were biting off
a lot," Whitlock said. "But
they followed through."
The project turned out to be
harder than the students ex-
pected. They worked before,
during and after school to
complete the work on time,
Ehrlich said.
The public service an-
nouncement, and the 50-page
report, were submitted to the
competition held annually at
DECA's state convention in
March. At the convention, the
students made a 15-minute
oral presentation for the
judges. The top two entries in
each category are competing
at the national convention in
San Jose, Calif.
"There are only five other
civic consciousness projects in
the state,' Whitlock said.
There are over 100 chapters
that could have done such a
project. That shows you what
a big challenge it was."
DECA is a national

-

Teacher Jerry Whitlock watches as revisions are made.

organization with 400,000
members in high schools
across the country, including
4,000 in Michigan. The West
Bloomfield members hold
fund-raisers to defray conven-
tion costs and provide T-shirts
and extras.
"It's a group of marketing
students from around the na-
tion," Whitlock said. "All of
them are trying to get to the
national conference. It makes
the classroom more fun; we're
doing real things. At West
Bloomfield, DECA is an
academic program for college-
bound students."

The students involved in
the anti-drug project are con-
sidering studying business in
college.
"I became interested in
business last year when I
started the first marketing
class," Ehrlich said. "This has
just helped increase my in-
terest."
"I learned a lot of leader-
ship and organizing skills in
doing this project," Friedman
said. "It was a positive ex-
perience. It took a lot of time,
but we were working to
benefit the community in-
stead of ourselves." ❑

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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