11-04-2025
2 local schools receive awards for creating alcohol PSAs
MORGANTOWN, (WBOY) — Awards events were held at Morgantown High School and Robert L. Bland Middle School on Thursday to recognize the efforts students put in to prevent irresponsible alcohol use.
The 'No School Spirits PSA Contest' is hosted each year by the West Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control Administration (WVABCA) WVABCA Commissioner Fred Wooton told 12 News that this is the 12th year that this competition has been held across the state.
'It drives a great message across about the dangers of underage drinking, drinking and driving, distracted driving there,' he added.
Students at Morgantown placed 4th in the contest and students at Robert L Bland landed in 5th place; both took home $750.
This year, the WVABCA received 51 video entries from middle and high school students throughout West Virginia. Wooton said that approximately 400 students were involved across 29 different schools in the state.
Wooton told 12 News that he has a team at his office in Charleston that evaluates the submissions, adding points for positives in each video, and subtracting points for perceived negative things. He added that this is the second time that the WVABCA has come to Morgantown High School, as they also placed in the statewide competition a few years ago.
'The videos that these students produce are just outstanding messages,' said Wooton. 'The message resonates much louder, I think when students hear it from their peers—peer-to-peer as opposed to me basically preaching the message.'
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According to Wooton, the purpose of this competition is to encourage students across the state to make good decisions. He stated that the decisions young people make now as students can affect them for the rest of their lives.
'So really, we wanna highlight the fact that the students [are] making good decisions here,' Wooton added. 'We think our message is really timed perfectly with the upcoming prom and graduation seasons.'
12th Grade Student Anika Fleming stated that Morgantown High School's video submission was made in their sports journalism class. She told 12 News that the video focused on losing a friend to impaired driving, adding that it deals with 'how it feels to like lose a friend and just have to like keep going obviously 'cause like the world doesn't stop if somebody's not there anymore.'
'It was a really, really cool experience,' said Fleming. 'I mean, I've always liked like editing stuff like that and I mean that's kind of how I joined this club. […] We make videos and stuff like that.'
Fleming said that she's always enjoyed making videos, but this time it was more serious because they were competing for prize money. She stated that her team worked very hard on this project—creating a storyboard and directing it, while she handled most of the editing.
According to Fleming, she's always taken drunk driving really seriously because she's seen people in her family struggle with alcoholism. 'I've seen how alcohol can affect people and so like, I've always taken stuff like that really seriously and like making this video, I was just […] really proud to make the video and like show people what it can do to people,' she added.
Fleming told 12 News that it felt very cool to place in the statewide contest, although she's used to 'Mohigan greatness' from her time attending Morgantown High School. 'After I realized we placed, […] it was just really surreal to like place in the entire state,' said Fleming.
Fleming has aspirations of attending college to pursue a degree in communications, with the long-term goal of becoming a photographer. Fleming is actively involved in the yearbook club, and takes a lot of photos for the school's yearbook.
'I wanna be a sports photographer,' she added. 'I wanna work with like a professional sports team and like tell the stories of like, you know–like championships, that there's always like a storyline going on.'
Wooton told 12 News that this contest would not be possible without the support of its sponsors, which include State Farm Insurance, the National Alcohol Beverage Control Association, and the West Virginia Governor's Highway Safety Program.
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