I’ll keep this post very short. This one’s really all about the video; an effort that goes nicely with Wednesday’s post.

Click image below for larger view…

UPDATE: Be sure to watch new video featuring Lake Washington High School seniors Shannon Bebee, Taylor LaFave and Kaylin Wilson in the February 25th, 2011 post, NEW VIDEO: #WASNOW CAN’T DAMPEN LAKE WASHINGTON STUDENTS’ RESOLVE TO FIGHT #DWD, #TWD

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STORY INCLUDES VIDEO

Hard to believe, but today marks the anniversary of Heather Lerch’s passing.  Heather’s life ended instantly after she decided to text while driving.  Her smile.  Her promising future.  Snuffed from the planet inside of a single, unimaginable, violent second.

But Heather’s story continues to touch lives, as illustrated by an event unfolding this week at Lake Washington High School in Kirkland, Washington.  It all started shortly before heathersstory.org received an e-mail on January 3rd.

That e-mail began, “My name is Shannon Bebee. I am a student at Lake Washington High School in Kirkland. For my senior project, I (along with two of my friends) am organizing a Public Relations campaign against texting while driving.”

Fast-forward to yesterday afternoon.  Heather’s mangled car—what her Dad once referred to as a coffin on wheels—arrived at Shannon’s school where it will remain on display today and tomorrow (Friday).  Meantime, Shannon and her fellow student project organizers have graciously written the following story for this Web site.  Their story explains why they’ve embraced Heather’s.

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by Shannon Bebee, Kaylin Wilson, and Taylor LaFave
for heathersstory.org
February 23, 2011

We had been looking online for ideas for a possible focus for our DECA public relations campaign when we discovered heathersstory.org. We immediately felt a personal connection because Heather Lerch was a local teen so similar in age to both ourselves and our peers.

After finding heathersstory.org, we began to look more deeply into the dangers of texting while driving and were shocked to discover alarming statistics  concerning how frequently people in our age group text while driving.

And unlike other known publicized driving hazards, texting while driving has largeley flown under the radar; especially unrecognized by the people who stand to be most affected by it: teens.

We felt that if we could spread the message on a peer-to-peer level, perhaps students would take this issue to heart. Using Heather’s story as the core of our campaign, we are able to show the real life effects and overwhelming impacts of texting while driving.  Ultimately, we want to drive home the point that this can happen to anyone.

We knew we needed something eye-catching—bordering on startling—if we were to get our  student body to take notice.  We began making posters about TWD; several included jarring facts.  Next, we developed ideas for events that could be held at our school.  We wanted those events to push our campaign forward by getting our peers involved.

We decided to host an Awareness Week, honoring Heather and the anniversary of her death, during which her car would be displayed at our school. We’d also encourage students to sign Oprah’s No Phone Zone pledge and run an informational slide show during both lunch hours.

On Friday, we’ll hand-out Smarties.  We’ve attached short messages with alarming statistics to the candy; all aimed at convincing students to avoid texting-while-driving.  In other words, “Be a Smartie.”

To be honest, this whole process has been quite a learning process for the three of us.  Only after many hours of research are we truly aware of the dangers of texting-while-driving.  And now we feel a responsibility to spread that knowledge by sharing it with our peers.

It has been amazing to work with so many eager and passionate mentors, including; Heather’s parents and State Trooper Julie Startup who brought Heather’s car to our school. These new relationships only strengthened our resolve to make this project as significant and successful as possible.

The project has presented its share of challenges.  At times, it’s been difficult to turn our ideas into reality while keeping-up with college applications and graduation requirements.  But the challenges only added to our drive to do justice to this important issue and to those who have been affected by it.

(editor’s note #1:  Miss Bebee, Miss Wilson and Miss LaFave provided heathersstory.org with their PowerPoint presentation.  I’ve taken the liberty of converting it to a movie and adding some music.)

Lake Washington PowerPoint / February 23, 2011

(editor’s note #2: Later this week, heathersstory.org will have more coverage of the event at Lake Washington High School.)

Update #5: (6:49pm/PST): Here’s tonight’s KING-TV news story featuring Heather’s mother, Wendy Lerch:

*Update #4: (5:41pm/PST): Young woman killed in last night’s texting-while-driving crash identified as Ashley Rene Jones-Davis of Tumwater (source: SeattlePI.com) *Please note: this update was revised on February 28 to include link to obituary and to correct last name; previously reported as “Davis-Jones.”

Update #3 (3:55pm/PST): KING-5′s been super @ responding to my inquiries via Twitter.  At this hour, KING-5 tells me that the story featuring Wendy Lerch is presently scheduled to air around 5:30pm.  A link for streaming the 5pm newscast live will appear on KING-5′s home page shortly before 5pm. The story is expected to be added to KING’s Web site around 7pm.

Update #2 (3:20pm/PST): This afternoon, The Seattle Times published a story featuring an interview with Wendy Lerch.  It’s driving a lot of traffic to heathersstory.org right now.  Thank you Seattle Times and all of you stopping by for the first time!

Update #1 (3:18pm/PST): Heather Lerch’s mother, Wendy, has just informed me that she was interviewed by KING-TV today.  A  story featuring that interview will air tonight.  No word yet on which newscast. Not certain, but I think this is the link for watching live streams of KING’s newscasts.  The story concerns last night’s fatal crash in Rochester.

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With fewer than 2,000 residents, Rochester is a quiet town south of Olympia, Washington.  It rests upon just 2.3 square miles of rural land.

Rochester could almost be Anywhere, USA.

But the town has just experienced its second texting-while-driving fatal crash in less than one year.

Police say a woman was killed last night when she crossed the center line on State Route 12 and struck a van.  The driver of the van was not hurt.

KOMO News reports, “Investigators believe the killed driver was texting in the moments before the crash as they found an open cell phone on the floorboard of the car.”

The woman, whose name has not been released, was 22.

No name, no face to put on this story at this moment.  Yet, the vision of another young woman instantly comes to mind.

Heather Lerch was just 19 when she died instantly after she decided to text while driving on the night of February 23, 2010.

Friday night’s fatality comes just five days prior the anniversary of Heather’s death.

Heather’s crash happened in nearby Little Rock, but she was less than three miles from her home in Rochester.

Two women.  Their lives seemingly yet to unfold.  But the strikingly similar police photos of their mangled cars shatter that notion.

Rochester is not just Anywhere, USA today.  More than ever, it serves as a powerful example of why people should never text while driving.