By: Crystal Mayo, BABES COO
Back in December, 2018, Karra Thomas, SUD Initiatives Prevention Manager (Detroit Wayne Mental Health Authority) sent notice to BABES of the 2019 Operation Prevention Video Challenge. The challenge would be the third annual for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the DEA Educational Foundation, and Discovery Education. At the time of the notice, BABES was already in the process of training Renaissance High students to become BABES’ Big Buddies. Students were scheduled to be trained in Basic BABES on identified weekends (become certified) and use the information provided in the training to mentor middle school students (BABES’ Little Buddies).
A meeting was called with Renaissance High Biology teacher and student volunteer coordinator Develyn Newell to discuss how her students could partner with the BABES body-sized puppets to compete in the DEA challenge. For four Saturdays Renaissance students Makayla Glenn (11th grade) and Michael Banks (11th grade) met with BABES’ COO (Crystal Mayo) at BABES Prevention Place to layout the 60-second PSA that would be submitted for the national competition that was due March 6, 2019. Glenn and Banks were responsible for not only writing the PSA script but also for coordinating the entire PSA with their peers. Ms. Newell encouraged the Renaissance Volunteer Club to participate by creating protest signs regarding the detriment of opioids and participating in the March component of the PSA video.
The challenge theme was “BABESWORLD and Renaissance High are Waging a War on Opioids.” The PSA was presented as a community march which included Renaissance ROTC, dancers, parents, and students marching to inform youth and their community about the opioids epidemic and how to avoid these deadly drugs. The challenge was a peer-to-peer platform for communicating messages about the dangers of opioid misuse. Overall, the challenge was designed to inspire teens to research the opioid epidemic, identify its widespread impact on the country and the substances’ harmful effects on the body, and start a social movement that encourages authentic dialogue about this critical issue.
On Wednesday, February 20th Renaissance students met at Masterpiece Sound Recording Studio in Detroit to record the voiceovers for the PSA. “This is so exciting,” said student Michael Banks, with this experience being not only his first in a real recording setting but also a first for the other students who were present. “Yes, this is very exciting,” echoed students Makayla Glenn and Nicholas Jordan, while student Sterling Johnson also expressed how much he enjoyed the overall “recording” experience.
On Saturday, February 23rd, the Renaissance team along with parents met at Prevention Place with the video team, Virtual Entertainment Media Group, to produce the PSA for competition submission.
In the words of the entire team, “We are claiming a win.” The top 10 finalists’ videos will be uploaded to operationprevention.com for a public vote to determine the People’s Choice winner. Winning PSAs will be featured on-air and across Discovery Education’s and DEA’s digital and social media platforms. Claiming the victory — once we have been selected as one of the top 10 videos — we will send a notice out for everyone to vote for our video April 11-25, 2019. Prizes for winning submissions include: lst place ($10,000); 2nd place ($5,000); 3rd place ($1,000) and People’s Choice: A VIP trip to Quantico, Virginia, for a tour of the DEA Training Academy.
Special thanks to the singing group The Fantastic Four for creating the march song and donating it to BABES and to Virtual Entertainment for the “no charge” to produce the video. We would also like to acknowledge and thank Ms. Thomas (parent volunteer) for working with the students. As in anything that involves the participation of youth, we also appreciate the parents who took time to bring the students to Prevention Place to participate. Last, but not least, special thanks to Renaissance students who performed in the PSA and made it happen:
Mardalyn Marizl (10th grade)
Sterling Johnson (12th grade)
Nicholas Jordan (12 grade)
Michael Banks (11th grade)
Makayla Glenn (11th grade)
Ja’Naiya Green (9th grade)
Brianna Brown (10th grade)
Madison Bryant-Carter (10th grade)
Antonio Green (10th grade)
Dezaray Hall (10th grade)
Jeru Cossom (11th grade)
… and we mustn’t forget the BABES puppets that left BABESWORLD (in body-size) to join the March against opioids by participating in the PSA.
