Kristina Parke
5 area students win lead the way scholarships
CBC/Vectren award each $1,000 for blood drive campaigns

DAYTON, Ohio – Community Blood Center (CBC) and Vectren have awarded Lead The Way Creative Scholarships to five Miami Valley high school seniors for skillfully using video, poetry, art and ingenuity to create winning blood drive recruitment campaigns.

The 2014 winners represent schools in Montgomery, Clarke, Miami and Darke County. The five seniors awarded $1,000 for college tuition are Margaret Woolf from Northmont High School; Jennifer Felzien from Northeastern High School; Rachel Neff from Oakwood High School; Hannah Saxe from Dayton Christian High School; and Kristina Parke from Bradford High School.

Applicants were asked to create a theme for their high school blood drive and explain why it would effectively encourage fellow students to donate. They were also challenged to express the theme in a clever, creative fashion using conventional marketing techniques or innovative, artistic expressions.

Kristina Parke (Bradford High School) is from Covington, OH. Her campaign featured a creative and unusual donor gift: A bracelet woven from 70 feet of red and white parachute cord. It’s an idea she says would appeal to her classmates more than a t-shirt because it is both symbolic and trendy. “The Paracord Bracelet is used in the armed forces for an extra parachute string,” she said, explaining her slogan “70 Feet of Paracord can save ONE life, a Few Minutes can save up to THREE! So have STRENGTH and Come Donate.” Kristina plans to study pediatric nursing at Kent State University.

Margaret Woolf (Northmont High School) is from Phillipsburg, OH. She created the slogan “Feed the Need” and playfully illustrated it using the iconic Pac-Man video game. “Retro is something that is really ‘in’ right now from all different decades,” she said. “Even if you haven’t played Pac-Man, everybody knows what Pac-Man is.” She plans to study architecture and historical preservation at Miami University.

Jennifer Felzien (Northeastern High School) is from South Vienna, OH. She combined several creative talents in a strikingly different recruitment brochure titled “Ordinary Heroes and the Power Within.” The outside folds are designed as high school locker doors with sticky notes as blood drive reminders. Inside is an original poem titled “An Ordinary Hero” about one girl making a blood donation while another receives blood in the emergency room. She included a crossword puzzle with key words and facts that support the theme. Jennifer will attend Cedarville University and would like to serve in the Ohio National Guard as a combat surgeon.

Rachel Neff (Oakwood High School) lives in Dayton. Rachel created the theme “How to Be a LifeSaver” and illustrated it with a t-shirt, poster design, and an original video. Her artwork borrowed the rainbow of LifeSaver candy colors, but replaced the rings with blood drops. Her t-shirt design assigned blood types to each LifeSaver ring and asked, “8 Flavors – What’s Yours?” Her “Pump It” video with tips on getting ready to donate was energized by upbeat music, fast-motion editing, and the frenetic dancing of her costumed classmates. Rachel will study business at the University of Alabama and wants to work in marketing and advertising.

Hannah Saxe (Dayton Christian School) lives in Dayton. Hannah designed a t-shirt and video campaign around the slogan “Would you save a life for a free t-shirt?” She explained, “In borrowing from the Klondike campaign of ‘What would you do for a Klondike bar?’ I created video asking select students from my high school if they would be willing to do simple, fun things for a free t-shirt and at the end challenged all of my classmates if they would be willing to save a life for a free t-shirt by participating in the blood drive.” Hannah will study Media Communication at Asbury University in Kentucky and hopes to work in the film industry.

2014 Lead The Way scholarship applicant videos and samples of winning artwork will be available at: www.GivingBlood.org/giving-back/reward.

The Lead The Way Creative Scholarship for High School Seniors is made possible by a $5,000 grant from Vectren. It is open to all graduating, college-bound seniors in CBC’s 15-county region whose high school hosts a CBC blood drive.