LONGMEADOW – March 30 was a winning night for Longmeadow High School, and the prize had nothing to do with sports or academics.

It was all about raising teen awareness of the dangers of distracted driving.

That evening three students – Vivian Li, Sylvia Mueller and Noelle Ehrenberg – won top honors for their billboard design, “Don’t Let Alcohol Drown You. Drive Sober,” at the Hampden County District Attorney’s second annual “Stop the Swerve: An Event to Prevent Impaired Driving,” bringing home a $10,000 technology enhancement grant for their school.

The student’s design will also be displayed on a local billboard donated by Lamar Advertising, one of the largest outdoor advertising companies in the Northeast, in the near future.

 "Longmeadow HIgh School is thankful to Noelle, Sylvia and Vivian for representing our school community so well in the ‘Stop the Swerve’ competition and extends our congratulates to these students for winning the top prize in the Billboard section of the competition," Longmeadow High School Assistant Principal Paul Dunkerley told Reminder Publications.

The Longmeadow student’s design was one of 10 billboards, and 33 public service announcements (PSAs) submitted by area high school students to this year’s competition, which culminated with an evening of award presentations and awareness activities hosted by the Basketball Hall of Fame.

To be considered, all billbord and PSA submissions had to be original, note the risks associated with drunk, drugged or in other ways distracted driving, and communicate a message about public safety.

Hampden County District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni opened the event by welcoming an overflow crowd of teens, teachers, parents and volunteers to the Hall’s auditorium for a screening of the PSA submissions, calling the evening “one of my favorite events the DA’s office does.”  

Noting that student submissions had doubled from last year’s 16 to this year’s 33 in the PSA category alone, he told the crowd that whether or not their work was chosen for a prize, “You are all winners because you are engaging on this message” of raising your peer’s awareness of the dangers of drunk and distracted driving.

"The reason we are all here is to educate others,” he said, citing statistics that show 28 people die every day from drunk driving accidents. “That’s one death every 53 minutes.”

He added that new drivers between the ages of 16 and 20 – which included the teens in the audience – were 17 percent more likely to die in a drunk or distracted driving accident than other drivers. The newly enacted legislation legalizing recreational marijuana for adults may soon skew those statistics higher for all age groups, he said, based on information coming in from early-legalizing states like Colorado.

As the state legislatue is still struggling with how to address safety issues regarding recreational marajuana use and adults over the age of 21, Gulluani said he felt it important “to educate young people about impaired driving, [and] that means drugged driving is a form of distacted driving.”

During the activities portion of the evening, where students were invited into Center Court to try out catching tennis balls, shooting baskets, walking a sobriety line and other tasks – all while donning impairment–mimicking goggles – Gulluni announced that, given the quality and number of PSA submissions to this year’s contest, the DA’s office would be awarding multiple grants.

Seven schools each received $1,000 honorable mention grants: Minnechaug Regional High School; Pope Francis High School, which received two nods; Tantasqua Regional High School; Roger L. Putnam Vocational-Technical High School, Pathfinder Regional High School and the White Oak School of Westfield.

Gulluni said choosing first, second and third place in this category was a challenge for the DA’s office and its panel of guest judges.

“These top three [public service announcements] were exceptional,” he said, adding that this year, “all the submissions were exceptional.”

The third-place award, and a technology-enhancement grant of $2,500 was awarded to students from Chicopee Comprehensive High School for their PSA, “Not Just Numbers.” Second place, and a $5,000 technology enhancement grant went to students from Westfield Technical Academy for “No Decisions.”

This year’s first place award, and $10,000 technology-enhancement grant in the PSA category went to students from Agawam High School for their submission, “More Than Yourself.”

Funding for this year’s “Stop the Swerve” event and technology grants was provided by the Drunk Driving Trust Fund, administered through the Massachusetts Office of Victim Assistance.