GREENSBORO, N.C. — "A dear friend of ours lost a son texting and driving and my little brother was killed in a single-vehicle accident related to a cell phone, so with that we are trying to make sure that young folks drive safe and stay safe," said Christopher Cook of Alliance Insurance Services.
To get that message out, Alliance Insurance Services is awarding scholarship money to students near and far who send in videos to their Distracted Driving Awareness Scholarship Contest.
Olivia Smith won for her second-place video in 2023. Now, she's away at school, using that scholarship money.
"It definitely helped pay some of my tuition needs, especially since being an out-of-state student is kind of expensive. It has helped me realize a lot about distracted driving," said Oliva Smith.
There are three scholarships to win, $1,750 for first place, $900 for second place, and $350 for third place. The video should be no more than three minutes and needs to be in by March 31, 2024. Winners will be announced in April.
"A lot of people, when they think about distracted driving, they think about being on your phone, but there is a lot to that on your phone. You can do a lot of things like I do in my video, some of it is kinda weird so I do my homework or I crochet.
It took me two to three hours to script it out, record it, and edit it," said Smith.
Alliance Insurance has been giving out scholarships linked to the Distracted Driving videos for the last ten years.
"They can tell each other the story than an old grey-headed guy like myself can, so we're encouraging them to tell the story and be safe. Whoever gives us the best video gets some scholarship money," said Cook.