Press Release

Press Release  Maynard High School Students Win Burn Awareness Video Contest

Prizes Sponsored by the Massachusetts Property Insurance Underwriting Association
For immediate release:
5/13/2022
  • Department of Fire Services

Media Contact   for Maynard High School Students Win Burn Awareness Video Contest

Jake Wark, Public Information Officer

Image of Maynard High School students with the State Fire Marshal

STOWState Fire Marshal Peter J. Ostroskey today presented a team of Maynard High School students with $200 in Best Buy gift cards and a video camera as their prize for winning first place in the Department of Fire Services’ 13th annual Burn Awareness Video Contest. The prizes were made available by the Massachusetts Property Insurance Underwriting Association.

The Maynard team’s entry in the annual contest was titled Fire Feud and presented fire and burn safety tips in an homage to the game show Family Feud. The students, Connor Capone, Ryan Cedeno, Blake Dreskin, Adam Kysiak, and Kyle Monahan, also toured the DFS headquarters in Stow, taking in decades of fire history and observing as Massachusetts Firefighting Academy recruits trained in the campus drill yard.

Students from Masconomet Regional High School received $100 in gift cards for their second-place entry, Fire Mix Tape, and students from Oakmont Regional High School received $50 in gift cards for their third-place entry, Prom Gone Wrong. Entries from Nauset Regional High School and two additional teams from Masconomet Regional High School received Honorable Mentions.  All six video submissions can be viewed on the DFS YouTube channel

“Social media is a great way for people of all ages to stay in touch and informed, but we’ve seen it used to promote dangerous stunts and challenges among kids and teens,” said State Fire Marshal Ostroskey, who met with the students after a tour of the Department of Fire Services headquarters in Stow. “The Burn Awareness Video Contest is a chance for young people to learn about fire-safe behavior and promote it among their peers using their media literacy skills. Some lessons – like preventing fires and burns – aren’t worth learning the hard way.”

Burn Awareness Video Contest

The annual Burn Awareness Video Contest is open to students in Massachusetts schools who are enrolled in grades 9 through 12 and part of school-sponsored communications courses or extracurricular groups. Communications teachers or faculty sponsors are required to review and approve all storyboards prior to filming. Videos are required to explore burn prevention topics in one to three minutes, be well researched, not demonstrate risky or unsafe behavior, and be both educational and informative.

This year’s judges included Julie Bergeron, Sara Pragluski-Walsh, and Julie Weinstein of the Department of Fire Services; Loren Davine of the Northwestern Youth Fire Intervention Response, Education and Safety Partnership (NoFIRES); Barbara DiGirolamo of Boston Children’s Hospital; Lt. Robert Feeney of the Onset Fire Department; Lt. Joseph Overly of the Douglas Fire Department; Firefighter/EMT William DeKing of the Medfield Fire Department; Firefighter/Paramedic Joshua Gray of the Whitman Fire Department; and Firefighter/Paramedic Cori Handorff of the Bridgewater Fire Department.

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Media Contact   for Maynard High School Students Win Burn Awareness Video Contest

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