By Ale Ibarra Posted May 20, 2017
The Humboldt General Hospital held the Every 15 Minutes program for the third time in six years, this year. The point of it is to show how much one decision can impact more than just your life; in this case, it’s drinking and driving. It also goes to show that in real life, you’re only given one chance.
The process of it all includes filming teenagers “partying”, the acting of how an accident like that can end up. After the filming, the junior and senior classes get to view the video and there is a “funeral” type of assembly where everyone who volunteered to be in the program shares their goodbye letters.
Nathan Perkinson, a junior, was one of the people who had to share his.
“I’ve come to realize and now know that drinking or being distracted while driving will always be very dangerous. Also, in real life, we wouldn’t get another chance to go home and see our loved ones,” said Perkinson.
Perkinson decided to do this because he felt that his dad was an influence.
“I mainly wanted to do this because of my dad but partly because I will be going into medicine after high school so it’s good to have a point of view or be a part of something like Every 15 Minutes. Basically, it’s a good experience for people going into the medical field,” said Perkinson.
After the filming and going a whole day without speaking to anyone around school, the volunteers had to go on a retreat at the Convention Center and spend the night to show how an absence can really affect the families and community.
Sylvie Prokasky, a junior, signed up for the program as well.
“I signed up for E15M because I wanted to spread awareness to the community that drunk and distracted driving can really impact and hurt people. I realized that losing one person, it doesn’t just affect the family of the person, it can affect a whole community,” said Prokasky.
Rachele Rodriguez was one of the juniors who watched the accident and was influenced by it.
“Overall, what I took out of this was that it’s very upsetting because it happens all the time in America. It’s very impacting on you so I would highly recommend everyone seeing it or being a part of it,” said Rodriguez.
