Pontiac Daily Leader

March 10, 2009

Josh Jahn speaks of losing his family during MWAH! presentation in Pontiac

Cynthia Adkins/Pontiac Daily Leader

Dwight, Ill. -

A loud car crash echoed through the speaker sound system in the gym at Pontiac Junior High School on Saturday.

Operation Snowflake audience members sat in silence, dumbfounded, when they watched Matt Michaels and Solaiman Rashid, two members of the performance troupe Message Which Are Hopeful (MWAH!), slowly moved two tables closer together toward the audience. Two easels stood on top of the tables. They were strategically placed for the audience members to see the poster-sized cardboard cutout of an article explaining that event.

Alex Oeschsel and Michaels narrated the real-life story of an alcohol-related crash that killed five Oswego teens in February 2007. Other members of the troupe acted out the scene during a performance of songs and drama of the true events that occurred that night.

Following the narration of that horrific crash, the picture props were replaced with a family portrait of Josh Jahn and his family.

"Exactly four months ago, yesterday, a Dwight woman and her two children got into a car crash involving an alcohol-related incident," Oeschsel said. "A woman, who was intoxicated, killed Amanda Jahn, her son Ryan, and her daughter Kaitlyn."

Josh Jahn walked to the middle of the gym floor and stood beside the portrait of his family.

"My wife Amanda, 3-year-old son Ryan, and my 11-month-old daughter Kaitlyn were taken from me when they were killed by a drunk driver," Jahn said. "A drunk driver hit my wife and two kids when the driver blew a stop sign.

"I miss my wife and my family very much. Although I only knew my family for a short time, I will never have the opportunity to see them again. I will never see my children again," Jahn said. "I will not see my kids grow up. I will not have the opportunity to watch my daughter attend prom. I will not have the opportunity to watch my son play baseball because of a bad choice a woman made.

"As I stand here before all of you today, I implore each and every one of you to make the right decisions and not the wrong choices so the decisions you make in the coming years do not send another person’s family away from them."

The crowd of sixth, seventh and eighth graders stood and applauded loudly as Jahn walked back to his seat.

It seemed Jahn’s message hit home.

After MWAH’s! performance, Jahn opened up to a Daily Leader reporter about his personal story of what type of impact he hopes get across to students and others who hear his story.

"Most of the time I have no idea how I am going to present my story to others," he said. "But like today, I try to feed off the energy of the crowd. My purpose here today was to tell these kids about what happened to me. I pray my message came across and I think it sunk in. They reacted very fast to my message.

"I will be speaking again in Dwight right before prom, doing a mock driving under the influence scenario with Det. Gary Beier (of the Dwight Police Department) who is here today helping with Operation Snowflake.

"I used to get nervous before I spoke, but I do not anymore," Jahn added. "I enjoy talking to people. I have adapted now to the attention and to people’s reaction.

"Like today, I do my best to try to use that energy and turn it into a positive tool. It’s a good thing. I’m making an impact on people although I have no idea how people will react. However, I do know that the sky’s the limit. God will take me (wherever) to have my message sunk in."

MWAH! can be found On the Net at: http://www.mwah.net/

Josh Jahn of Dwight, Illinois, addresses the audience of junior high and high school students at the Livingston County Operation Snowflake conference in Pontiac. On his right is a portrait of him with his wife, Amanda, and his two children, Ryan and Kaitlyn, taken about a week before his wife and children died when another car driven by a drunk driver ran a stop sign. On his left is MWAH! troupe member Alex Oechsel, who introduced him.
(photo by Cynthia Adkins of The Daily Leader)