'Prom Promise' has impact

This article appeared in the Tampa Tribune on April 12, 2002. More photos from the event are in Gallery 30 on the pictures page.

By RONNIE BLAIR

NEW PORT RICHEY - It's a little shock treatment just before the prom. Emergency workers teamed up with Gulf High drama students Thursday morning to present a grisly re-enactment of a drunken driving accident.

Their audience: Gulf High juniors and seniors who will celebrate their prom Saturday night. The re-enactment is part of a ``Prom Promise'' program that encourages the students to take a vow to avoid alcohol on prom night.

``I remember two years ago all the seniors talking about it,'' said Kirby Combs, 17, who portrayed a witness to the accident in this year's version. ``I was a sophomore then, so I didn't see it. But it really impacted them.''

Two crunched up cars donated by Tatum's Towing helped set the scene. The crash takes place offstage, and at first all the audience hears are the voices of a boy and girl driving home after the prom. He is drunk. Once the crash happens, the scene is revealed.

The girl's body is sprawled across the hood of a Toyota Tercel, where she landed after the force of the impact hurled her through the windshield.

In the other car, a boy lies limp in the driver's seat. Two of his three passengers rush from the car in hysterics. The third passenger, a boy, will be taken away by ambulance and die in the emergency room.

Blood is everywhere.

The teenage boy who caused it all wanders around in a drunken daze.

``This is probably my fifth or sixth one, but every time, your hair stands on end and you catch your breath,'' Principal Cheryl Renneckar said.

Gulf High has endured real- life tragedies before, Renneckar said. One year a planned re-enactment was canceled because a student died in a car crash a few days before the event was to happen.

Mike Bradley, 17, who played one of the accident victims, said he's not sure everyone will get the message.

``I think some will,'' he said. ``The ones who can really see this happening. But I can't see everybody getting it.''

Chris Scott, 17, who played an accident witness, didn't need the re-enactment to remind him of the dangers of drinking and driving.

A few years ago, a friend was killed in Michigan in a drunken driving accident.

``It's something I would rather not see happen again,'' Scott said.

Staging the re-enactment takes quite a few emergency workers and vehicles - including a Bayflite helicopter. The Pasco County Sheriff's Office, Pasco County Emergency Services, the Florida Highway Patrol, the New Port Richey Fire Department and the New Port Richey Police Department all had a hand.

Sheriff Bob White appeared and urged the students to make wise choices so they ``don't lose one single classmate, one single friend to DUI.''

The re-enactment rotates among Pasco's nine high schools, with about half of them experiencing it one year, and the others the next.

The ``Prom Promise'' re- enactments have been taking place since 1992, said Cpl. Tim Spitzer, Gulf High's school resource officer.

``The students' response has been excellent,'' he said. ``They really get into it. They hate the driver, the one who caused it. I've seen them boo the driver and cheer when he gets arrested.''

This year, Nick Derenze, 17, played the drunken driver. He said it was a fine line trying to appear drunk without looking comical. He was instructed not to fall down because that might draw laughs - definitely not the point of the show.

Gulf High drama teacher Rebecca Gedraitis said her student actors didn't have a lot of time to prepare.

``There's only so much rehearsal you can do with this,'' she said. ``I told the students this is the hardest thing you'll ever do, but it's also the easi est because it's so emotional you'll just go with it.''

Actors Melissa Vanderlaak, 18, and Jennifer Wilhite, 18, did just that - screaming through most of the production.

``I watch `Steel Magnolias' a lot,'' Vanderlaak said. In the movie ``Steel Magnolias,'' Sally Field performs an emotional scene at a funeral.

``It takes a lot out of you,'' Wilhite said. ``I'm ready for a nap.''

Kaitlyn Martin, meanwhile, played the dead girl and had to remain still while mayhem broke out around her.

``It was really hard,'' Martin, 17, said. ``My neck hurt, and I was afraid glass was going to hit me when the helicopter came.''

Stray bits of glass did pose a problem for David Sutton, 18, who waited in the second car while emergency workers used the Jaws of Life to extract him.

``I got glass all over me,'' Sutton said. ``But that's all right.''

In this case, the rewards outweighed the discomfort. Since he played a critically injured victim, Sutton received a ride in the Bayflite helicopter.

Debbie Drake was the only parent in the play. She is Vanderlaak's mother, but portrayed Martin's.

``When you're out there, it doesn't feel like you're in a play,'' Drake said. ``It feels real. I couldn't do it if my daughter was playing the victim.

``I just hope the kids learn something from this.''