Rotarians get viewing of emotionally poignant ‘CHOICES’

As the music built to a crescendo, the scene grew darker.
Someone was the victim of a car accident and the realization of those events had begun to filter onto everyone on the scene — the officers, the paramedics, the firefighters, the coroner and the victim’s friends, one of which was on her way to jail for her role in the accident.
Earlier in the evening, another choice had been made, a security man for a local club let a 17-year-old into a club who proceeded to enjoy multiple alcoholic beverages.
He too got behind the wheel of a car and took a life and injured another and would also face the music for his actions.
After completing its fourth year, CHOICES continues to grow, but has stayed true to its tagline: Every Choice Comes With A Price.
Year after year, organizers try to put the focus on young people making wise choices and displaying the ugly consequences of a wrong one. This year was no different, it just involved a few extra students, days, time and energy to the tune of 120 students in the cast and the filming and presentation over an entire week.
“This isn’t an Acadia Parish Sheriff’s Office project, it’s a community project,” said CHOICES Coordinator Maxine Trahan at the Rotary Club of Crowley’s weekly meeting.
Trahan, along with Chad Monceaux, who helped coordinate the program’s presentation at the schools this year, spoke and presented the film at the club’s lunch-time gathering Tuesday.
Emotions were high in filming this year, explained Trahan for a variety of reasons. The film is dedicated to a former participant who passed away in a car accident in 2014, another student who was set to take part was unable to due to a car accident and, after the fact, one of the students who participated passed away earlier this month due to illness.
Each year has proven to be a learning experience for Trahan and her fellow coordinators, including how emotional the courtroom scene proved to be in filming. It is there you see the raw emotion of a mother who has lost her child and the hopes and dreams she carried. As the scene cuts away from the mother, shaking with emotion, it turns to the defendant, head down, obviously emotional and filled with regret.
It is those emotionally poignant moments and the gravity of the decisions made that one fateful night that are portrayed and captured throughout the 23 minute-long video that will once again see television airing locally. KLFY will show the short film immediately following its 6 p.m. newscast on Thursday, May 28.
As for next year, Trahan has already started looking to make the program bigger and better and is hoping to keep the video content current as the coordinators look to continue to save as many lives as possible.