Supporters of a dormant teen-focused alcohol program are looking to the City of Lexington to help bring it back.
Keep-It-Real is a video contest that ran out of funding in 2012. The competition encouraged high-school-aged youth to create messages to discourage underage drinking. Prior to a one-year hiatus, it ran for almost a decade, drawing participation from Lexington and beyond.
DrugFreeLex Administrator Lynsey Sugarman came before Lexington City Council last week to ask for financial support. She says a renewed contest would include an expansion of the video messages.
“In the remix we’re gonna expand it to talk about prevention of all kinds of substance abuse, not just alcohol, but other substances that teens want to talk to their friends about not using,” said Sugarman
For years, Sugarman says, a state police grant supported the Keep-It-Real contest. Sugarman says teens weren’t the only one’s benefiting from the homemade videos.
"We’ve been really pleased that not only are we doing these 30 second videos, but teachers throughout the community have been using the materials for multi-media presentations on history and English and other subjects. So, it’s been a win-win for everybody,” added Sugarman.
The current fundraising effort is being geared toward a variety of public and private groups to help cover the 30 thousand dollar cost.
2009 Keep-It-Real Winner: "Do Everything You Can"
http://youtu.be/MxP7mf0Dvbg
