FCCLA Chapter in Utah Wins $3,500 Top Prize in Safe Rides-Save Lives PSA Contest

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May 15, 2024, 10:00 ET

NEW YORK, May 15, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Carson Wycherly, a senior at Westlake High School in Saratoga Springs, Utah, won a $3,500 prize for his FCCLA chapter by placing first in the Safe Rides-Save Lives PSA Contest. The national competition was developed by the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) and sponsored by The National Road Safety Foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes safe driving behavior. Candace Wilson is the FCCLA Advisor at the school.

The contest empowers young people by encouraging them to create public service announcement messages that will have an impact on teen driving safety, with the focus this year passengers speaking up when in a vehicle being driven dangerously.

The winning message opens showing a car that has crashed, with smoke rising from the hood as somber music plays. Words come on the screen telling us that 26,585 passengers died in crashes in 2021. We then see the driver raising his head from the steering wheel, while slightly blurred in the background, we see the passenger slumped over, apparently unconscious or dead. Words on the screen say, "You can change that. Advocate for yourself."

In addition to the cash prize, Wycherly and other students at the school will work with an Emmy Award-winning director and production crew to make the winning entry into a finished 30-second public service announcement that will air on more than 150 TV stations nationwide.

The first runner-up is Lehi High School in Lehi, UT. Second runner-up is Minden High School in Minden, NE.

The winning PSAs were selected from a pool of applicants from around the nation. The winner will be featured later this year on Teen Kids News, nationally syndicated on more than 150 TV stations. It will have its public debut in front of several thousand young people at the FCCLA National Leadership Conference in Seattle in June.

"Carson's PSA was chosen because it shows in an impactful way the importance of passengers speaking up, which we hope will resonate with young people as well as their families and their communities," said Michelle Anderson, director of operations at The National Road Safety Foundation.

Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) is a dynamic and effective national student organization that helps young men and women become leaders and address important personal, family, work, and societal issues through Family and Consumer Sciences education. FCCLA has more than 180,000 members and more than 5,400 chapters from 48 state associations, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

The National Road Safety Foundation, Inc. (NRSF) is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit charitable organization that for more than 60 years has been dedicated to reducing crashes, deaths and injuries on our nation's highways by promoting safe driving habits through greater public awareness. NRSF produces documentaries, educational programs and public service campaigns for broadcast and for use in safety, educational and enforcement programs by police, teachers, traffic safety agencies, healthcare professionals, youth advocacy groups and other grass-roots related agencies, as well as federal, state and local government agencies. The programs, which are free, deal with distracted driving, speed and aggression, impaired driving, drowsy driving, driver proficiency and pedestrian safety. The Foundation also works with youth advocacy groups and sponsors contests to engage teens in promoting safe driving to their peers and in their communities. For information or to download free programs, visit www.nrsf.org.