The Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) announced the winners of its ‘Heads Up, Phones Down’ video contest for high school students.
Students encouraged their peers to avoid cell phone use and distractions while driving in public service announcement-style videos. MCDOT received 185 entries. Any public or private school student was able to submit a video, whether individually or in a group, in both English and Spanish.
Thomas Phillips from Walter Johnson high school won the grand prize and an Apple MacBook Pro for his video “Don’t Tempt Yourself” in the individual category.
From John F. Kennedy High School, Danny Lemus-Luna’s video “Keep All Eyes on the Road” was awarded first runner-up and an Apple Watch. Zoey Tahardi, a student at Winston Churchill High School, won second runner-up for “Driving Without the Senses” with a mobile phone tripod as the prize.
In the group category, Anna Li and Isabel Wu from Poolesville High School took home the grand prize and an $800 Visa gift card for their video “Trapped.” Also from Walter Johnson High School, Vesper Ruhlen and Alex Hazoume won first runner-up. Tatiana Zeman and Emilia Hicks from Richard Montgomery High School won second runner-up. They received a $400 and $200 Visa gift card respectively.
Members of the MCDOT Safe Routes to School office surprised the grand prize winners at their high schools on April 21 with balloons and cheers.
About 11 teens per day die nationwide as a result of texting and driving, County Executive Marc Elrich said in a press release announcing the winners.
“We want to avoid these tragedies in Montgomery County and these peer-to-peer messaging contests and campaigns are very effective at drawing attention and awareness to this dangerous and deadly behavior,” Elrich said in the release.
The winning videos as well as photos of the students can be found on the MCDOT Heads Up, Phones Down website.
Congrats to groups from Poolesville, Walter Johnson and Richard Montgomery high schools and individuals from John F. Kennedy and Winston Churchill on their winning videos for @MCDOTNow's Heads Up Phones Down video contest. Follow this link to watch https://t.co/neYLpzgsJT pic.twitter.com/ITYp1GCsIC
— County Exec Marc Elrich (@MontCoExec) April 28, 2023
