The Observer of De Witt, Iowa
April 04, 2009
MWAH! delivers powerful, positive messages to NEHS students
Kate Howes, Staff Writer
Members of Students Against Destructive Decisions, or, "SADD" at Northeast Middle and High School, wanted to send their fellow students a message to make better choices in their lives.
To do so, they enlisted the help of "MWAH!" which stands for "Messages Which Are Hopeful," a performing arts troupe out of Chicago, Ill.
The young artists, ranging in age from 9-18, visited the school Monday morning to touch on a number of important issues plaguing teenagers today - drinking and driving, bigotry and hatred based on differences among people, bullying, MySpace and Cyber-bullying and emotional and physical abuse in boyfriend/girlfriend relationships.
The group uses a variety of music - gospel, pop, country and bluegrass - performs skits and hip-hop dances in an effort to get students' attention and teach them how to handle some of life's more perplexing issues.
What the group strives to do most is offer teens messages of hope and to reassure them, everyone faces the same obstacles in life - how they deal with them is what matters most.
"You might go to a smaller school, but people here still are different," noted 18-year-old MWAH! member Michael. "No matter how different they are, all people deserve to be treated with respect."
Abrupt example of intolerance
Monday's assembly took Northeast students by surprise when it began with an unexpected lesson in tolerance.
Following her introduction of MWAH!, SADD advisor and business education teacher Amanda Eberhart introduced a person she referred to as a "special visitor" to Northeast.
A young man, said to be a Muslim foreign exchange student from Afghanistan attending Ashford University in Clinton, took the microphone and began to greet students when a hostile young man in the crowd began shouting at him.
"Go home!" the boy yelled. "We don't want you here! This is our country, go back to your own country . . . you're a terrorist!"
The foreign exchange student sadly looked on as several people, including a couple members of the Northeast staff, dragged the irate teenager kicking and screaming out of the gymnasium.
Moments later, that same young man slowly made his way back into the gymnasium and made amends with the student.
As it turned out, however, the irate young man and the foreign exchange student really were members of MWAH!
The outburst merely was a skit used to show teens the kind of intolerance some young people face based solely on their appearance.
"I'm not a foreign exchange student, but I am a Muslim from Palestine," explained Solaiman. "Hatred because of race or religion should not be tolerated. The words of the 'I Have a Dream' speech made by Dr. Martin Luther King are as valid today as they were 45 years ago."
The 'C' word
Throughout the remainder of the program, MWAH! members performed numerous skits, each one demonstrating what can happen when students make bad choices.
On the subject of drinking and driving, the troupe talked with students about an accident which took the lives of five teenagers in Oswego, Ill., in February of 2007.
The driver, who lived, was legally drunk and driving nearly 30 miles per hour over the speed limit when her car struck a utility pole.
"The driver was a good person who made bad choices that night," explained MWAH! member Chris. "Sometimes, we choose to live for the moment . . . or die. It all comes down to the 'C' word - choices. We always have choices."
Christina Craig, president of Northeast's SADD chapter, said the odds of a person being involved in a drunk-driving accident are 1 in 3.
That startling statistic should be enough to convince anyone to make the right choice when it comes to driving drunk.
"It could be any one of us," she noted. "Make good choices and don't drink and drive."
Having a "personal hero," or someone to look up to who makes good choices, can help keep another person's life on track, Eberhart noted.
She introduced four Northeast students whom she considers to be heroes in their own right - FBLA president Lily Winkler, FFA president Caitlin Wagemester, student council member Efrain Sandoval and SADD member Matt Flesch.
"We practice what we preach," explained MWAH! member Michael. "We do our best to live by these morals everyday of our lives. We believe there should be acceptance, justice and hope, and we challenge you students to share our message with others."
"The way we're treated today determines the way we think and act later on," said fellow MWAH! member Whitney. "Please, let's respect each other for our differences. After all, we have a lot in common - we all have hopes and we all have dreams."
Copyright © 2009, The Observer Publishing Co. of De Witt, Iowa www.dewittobserver.com All rights reserved.
Heroes at Northeast. Members of the performing artists troupe MWAH! serenade students who are considered to be heroes at their school. Those honored were (from left) FBLA president Lily Winkler, FFA president Caitlin Wagemester, student council member Efrain Sandoval and Students Against Destructive Decisions or SADD member Matt Flesch.
(Photo by Kate Howes of The Observer, of De Witt, Iowa)