ROWVA Kids to consider safe driving in visit by MWAH! troupe
Posted Sep 12, 2011 @ 06:47 AM
MWAH! troupe member Chris Oechsel comforts ROWVA High School senior Katey
Wheeler as she speaks during the assembly on September 12 about her close
friend, Kevin Moore, who was killed in a car crash in August 2010. A photo of Kevin is displayed in the background.
(photo
by Nick Adams of The Register Mail)
By Doug Boock, editor of the Galva News
Oneida — A group promoting the importance of avoiding distracted driving habits will appear at ROWVA High School in an assembly for students this morning.
The MWAH! Performing Arts Troupe plans to add its influence to ROWVA students' efforts to end a string of recent fatal crashes. There have been five recent deaths – four teenagers and the father of a fifth teenager – in four separate distracted driving crashes. MWAH! is an acronym for "Messages With a Hope."
The 90-minute presentation will begin at 9:45 a.m. in the ROWVA High School gym.
Friends or family members of two ROWVA High School teen victims will participate in the presentation, sponsored by the school’s FCCLA chapter (Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America).
Also planning to participate are State Rep. Donald Moffitt; the coroner of Knox County, Mark Thomas; and Rhonda Brady, director of the Knox County Area Project, an outreach program for youth and their families, based in Galesburg. Rep. Moffitt will comment on current laws in Illinois related to both teen driving and cyber-bullying.
Other issues of the presentation will include a continued controversy stemming from 911 ten years after the attacks on our country; abusive relationships – boyfriend-girlfriend and parent-child; and both deadly and positive consequences related to high school and junior high bullying. Several ROWVA High School students and staff members also will be recognized as ‘heroes’ for their personal accomplishments.
On a lighter note, at least 25 students from both ROWVA High School and the junior high will join the MWAH! troupe in a hip hop dance finale, having rehearsed together earlier this morning.
The MWAH! ensemble includes 12 members who range in age from 11 to 20, attend nine different schools, both public and parochial, and they live in eight cities and towns in Chicago’s western suburbs as well as other communities across northern and north-central Illinois.
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