A North Battleford teen snagged a $2,500 gift card for himself and a $5,000 cheque for John Paul II Collegiate by participating in The Decision, a contest connected with an ad launched in movie theatres last fall by SGI and Students Against Drinking and Driving.
Tyler Cockburn, 16, was one of four winners randomly drawn from 3,400 contest entries. Participants wrote endings for the movie-trailer style ad about drinking and driving. In the ad, a high school football player decides to drink and drive.
In Cockburn's version of the story, the football player wakes up in the hospital, paralyzed from the waist down. His car is totaled. His girlfriend is dead, and so is the driver of the car he hit. He ends up serving time for manslaughter instead of pursuing a career in kinesiology. And for the rest of his life, he must live with the knowledge that because he didn't ask for a safe ride home, a number of lives were destroyed.
"We had some really great entries for 'The Decision' and it's clear that this innovative approach really engaged people," said Tim McMillan, Minister Responsible for SGI.
"SGI will be using the responses to learn more about what young people think about the consequences of impaired driving."
The ad, now featuring a possible ending, can be viewed online at www.thedecision.ca. It has been watched more than 69 million times by people across Canada and in 35 other countries.
According to preliminary numbers, in 2010, there were about 129 alcohol related collisions in Saskatchewan involving drivers under the age of 19, resulting in five deaths and 81 injuries.
