Classmates got a first look at the ads during a recent jam-packed premier party

Hundreds of students in the city of Brighton, New York plan to cast their votes for President and Congress on Thursday, October 28 as part of the National Student Parent Mock Election (NSPME). But, for some, casting a vote simply isn’t enough. That’s why a group of extra-inspired kids from various grade levels have produced a series of public service announcements to encourage more of their peers nationwide to get involved with the democratic process.

Their effort is going way beyond Brighton. The city’s director of communications, Stephen Dodd, says that the spots are set to appear on regional television stations just prior to the mock election. And leaders at the NSPME headquarters in Arizona are making the announcements available to media outlets across the country.

“We are offering the tape to stations…just as we would top quality public service announcements created by adults,” says Gloria Kirshner, president of the NSPME. “They are top quality!”

Sean Beckett, 15, helped create the ads. He says he hopes they are picked up by national media outlets so that more kids can see that their peers are getting involved in politics. “If you don’t participate, it’s like you’re saying the United States isn’t a democracy,” says Beckett. “This year is an especially good time to get kids involved, since there’s so much attention on the election.”

Uninvolved vs. Involved

Take a look at the students’ creations to get an idea of just what an uninvolved kid looks like.

With help from teachers David Occhino, Mike Malloy, and Chuck Kane, students from Brighton Middle School wrote, performed and edited a thirty-second public service announcement over this past summer. They positioned images of uninvolved kids against others of students who made themselves aware of important issues and then took an active role in the democratic process.

Meanwhile, at Brighton’s French Road Elementary School, fifth grader B. August Pierre wrote a simple – yet compelling – message on the importance of voting. It was chosen from a group of 100 similar pledges as inspiration for two more public service announcements. Pierre’s pledge was then acted out by 24 third, fourth and fifth grade students from the school.

In the resulting ad, students’ voices and face expertly “morph” to get their message across. Technicians with Video Propulsion, Inc. helped make the points come alive.

“The thought that all of the hard work our kids put into this project might pay off in the form of energizing other children to cast an educated vote is something that has kept us all going throughout this entire process,” says Dodd. “They may not fully understand it, but our kids are really making a difference.

Many Brighton kids and families are supporting the National Student Parent Mock Election.

Getting Here
Brighton city leaders worked hard to help the idea come to fruition. When Paula Grassl, the city’s deputy tax receiver, first learned about the NSPME by surfing the Internet, she felt her town could use the program to play a role in helping kids express their views on politics. “From the beginning of this project, our idea was to make a difference in the lives of our children by exposing them to the democratic process and by educating them as to the importance of their vote,” she says.

Grassl and her colleagues had been brainstorming for months on ways to involve children in the political process, especially in an important national election year. “When Paula made me aware of the [NSPME] program, we both realized this project seemed like an incredible opportunity to teach children and their parents about the importance of casting an educated vote,” says Brighton Town Clerk Susan Kramarsky. “We also knew that Brighton would be a great community in which to introduce this program because we have such a great school system and very engaged voters.”

From those early good intentions, they went on to develop a coalition of community members who could lend their expertise to the project. They brought together school district leaders, as well as officials from the Board of Elections, both local political parties and the professional video production company.

One immediately noticeable result of the months-long collaboration is the public service announcements that will air on TV stations and Internet outlets throughout the country. But Grassl says that there’s an even more important, long-term, end result: “Everything we’ve accomplished to this point is really just a build up to the day when some of these children will cast their first vote in a Presidential election.”

Rarin’ to Vote
The students’ creations were first made public at a large premier party on August 25. A standing room only crowd of local officials, school administrators, teachers, parents and students were pretty impressed with what they saw, according to individuals who attended the event.

“I really feel these public service announcements can help to educate more of our young people about the outstanding work being done by the NSPME,” says Sandra Frankel, the city’s supervisor.

Beckett, who started at Brighton High School in September, has some advice for his peers nationwide. For now, he thinks listening to political debates on the radio and reading about politics on the Internet are good ways for students like him to get involved. “People my age may not realize that they can affect the government so soon,” he says. “We can and will make a difference.”

Get Your Ballots Each state’s National Student Parent Mock Election ballot is available online.

That kind of excitement is part of the final build-up to the official NSPME voting day when hundreds of thousands of kids and parents are expected to cast their votes for politicians nationwide.

Brighton leaders plan to keep the momentum going past the election. The town is currently working with the Brighton Central School District to plan a number of events focused on democracy throughout the school year.

“We’re extremely proud of all of the hard work that has been done thus far by a core group of involved students, teachers, administrators and local officials, but you haven’t seen anything yet,” says Grassl.

You can watch online as state and national votes get posted. Final results will be posted at 10:00 PM EDT on Oct. 28th.

Resources:

• Kids Voting USA, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to educating and engaging students in the electoral process, has developed a Web-based voting system that will be tested during the 2004 presidential election.
• Kids and Politics, a Project of Connect for Kids

Rob Capriccioso is a staff writer for Connect for Kids.