Mangano Announces High School Drug Abuse Awareness Winners

Nassau County Executive Edward P. Mangano today announced winners of Nassau County’s High School Drug Abuse Awareness Video Contest: The four winning high schools are General Douglass McArthur Senior High School, Valley Stream South High School, Levittown’s Division Avenue High School and George W. Hewlett High School in Hewlett. County Executive Mangano also awarded with an honorable mention to students from Baldwin High School, Division High and South Side High School in Rockville Centre for their contest submissions.

As part of Red Ribbon Week in October, students in grades 9 through 12 were asked to create a Public Service Announcement (PSA) to support Nassau County’s new initiative, Families Against Drugs (FAD). Students in eight districts and nine high schools - working with teachers and advisors - participated to help raise awareness of the dangers of abusing drugs, even those prescribed by a physician. The students designed 30-second drug abuse awareness videos demonstrating the consequences of unhealthy behaviors/decisions and the promotion of healthy behaviors/attitudes. This is important as statistics indicate that drug overdoses kill nearly one Long Islander a day and nearly one person dies every 19 minutes from drug-related causes nationwide.

Students who produced and created the winning video are General Douglass MacArthur High School studentsStephanie Balan, Alanna Bayarin, Carmine Criscione, John Lewis, Kristen Politi, Jennifer Rauch and Nicole Silvar. Valley Stream South High School student Ashley Villanueva was awarded second place. Levittown Division Avenue High School student Anthony Chicas won third place and the following students from George W. Hewlett High School came in fourth place: Elizabeth Donohue; Lauren Dana; Daryl Last; Ariel Eisenberg; Jayde Farkas; Divya Lall; Eric Arzouman; Mollie Falk; Sarah Walder; Jaimee DeSimone; Remi Friedman; Jack Bluth; Lindsey Reiter; Nicholas Belluccia; and Jamie Gordon.

The students who received Honorable Mention are Baldwin High School students Justin Bramwell and Edward Echols Jr., Division High School students Mark Martinez, Alex Cohen, Thomas Deegan, Geovanny Quiroz and Giuseppe Piscitelli andSouth Side High School student Nicole Pereira.

The four winning PSAs, and the three receiving Honorable Mention, can be viewed on Youtube through the following link: http://tinyurl.com/NassauPSAcontest