Spanish River High School students said enough is enough when it comes to the teen death rate while texting and driving. Spanish River, located in Boca Raton, Florida is the anchor high school responsible for cultivating a grassroots, student-to-student movement that is involving schools from all over the country.
The Spanish River Student Leadership, led by event founder Ross Brenner, President of the Sophomore Class, and Dalton Holody, Vice President, are proud to announce the collaboration of several major music recording artists who have agreed to lend their support to the national base of students in middle, junior, and high schools across the country. The event will take place April 28, 2012, on the campus of Florida Atlantic University in the new state-of-the-art 30k seat stadium just opened in October 2011.
Rock 2 Live Music Festival
To raise awareness, involved teens planned the Rock 2 Live Music Festival, taking place on April 28th at Florida Atlantic University’s brand new stadium. The concert and the broadcast of the event through a revolutionary live streaming interface will help the message of responsible texting reach a national audience. In doing so, the campaign hopes to reach an audience of millions.
The Rock 2 Live Music Festival has attracted some A-List talent including: Artist, Flo Rida; Grammy Award winning artist Kelly Rowland, Grammy nominated OneRepublic; red hot country act BadHorse; Canadian alternative band Surface Rising; Pop Rock singer/songwriter Jessica Dawn; and others still to be announced. Tickets for the 30,000 person festival are on sale available on www.Ticketmaster.com.
All artists invited were selected by student requests and made possible by Global Maximus Productions. The students felt it was important to enlist major caliber artists in order to get their message out to the largest possible audience.
Spanish River and Boca Raton are quickly becoming known as places of leadership and responsibility, and these artists are committed, along with these student leaders in sending a strong message into the teen community throughout the country to Not Drive Distracted.
In addition to the in-person concert event, a pioneering streaming broadcast and interactive event, designed by Gotham Media Services, will carry the concert to a live audience all over the country. “E-Tickets” for this live streaming event will be available via Ticketmaster.
A Growing Coalition
As part of their national outreach project, the Spanish River Student Leadership Council, led by Ross Brenner, reached out to politicians, educators, responsible texting organizations and companies in order to create a coalition of supporters to help carry the message of safe driving to their communities.
One of the major supporters of the initiative, PhoneGuard, the developer of the leading safe phone app for smartphones, has agreed to give their software away for free with every e-ticket sold in support of the initiative, a $19.99 value. Boca Raton-based PhoneGuard, who has partnered up with two-time Grammy nominated singer/songwriter Justin Bieber has already filmed a PSA concerning distracted driving that airs on their website.
Keith St Clair, Chairman of PhoneGuard, stated that he was delighted that the company could make a significant contribution to thousands of schools throughout the country, as well as, supporting a number of charities including the Alex Brown Foundation.
“This is a crossroads in our lives. Either we do what is right, or we sit on the sidelines. We have chosen to stand with these students, and save the lives of our children, parents, and peers,” added St Clair.
Preceding the music festival, a Public Awareness Market will be held outside of FAU’s stadium. The family-oriented market will include booths staffed by responsible texting advocates and will include distracted driving simulators and an opportunity for people to “take The Pledge” to not drive while distracted. Admission to the Public Awareness Market is free and open to the public, starting at 2:00 p.m., on April 28th.
Life-like Online Streaming
The event which will stream “Live” to a national audience, will encourage the audience to take part in the awareness campaign and experience the events and concert. A next-generation content delivery network, powered by Gotham Media Services, Inc. will provide viewers with an incredibly crisp, lag-free viewing experience on their computer, tablet, or mobile device.
The event will be used as a means for the participating schools to become an interactive part of the movement. The producers are allowing the attraction to be used to raise badly needed funds through the national fundraising program. The program is supported by Global Maximus Productions, producers of the interactive event with hundreds of schools across the country already committed with several thousand schools possibly in support of the program all working together.
“We are incredibly grateful to our producers, strategic partners, supporters, and partner schools throughout the country for their amazing encouragement, involvement, and assistance to this important movement,” states Ross Brenner.
“All of us have been, or very likely will be, touched by the tragic death of people close to us killed by distracted driving or while texting,” states Dwaine Rivers, Executive Producer of the event. “This historic event was brought to the national front by teens reaching out to other teens that are tired of seeing their friends die, and this event will bring awareness to a new level on this deadly subject,” Rivers concludes.
“I am very happy to help make a difference in supporting the student movement and these great artists. It’s an honor to be in support of such an inspiring movement led by these students. It has been a great experience seeing the program develop into a mainstream national event of historic levels,” adds Alex Rajaphoumy Executive Producer.
Global Maximus Productions has agreed to support the production of the event annually through 2016, with plans to designate the third Saturday in March each year to represent the National Day of Awareness Against Texting & Driving.
