WVC at Omak students sponsor Anti-Texting and Driving Concert Feb. 24

An Anti-Texting and Driving Concert will be held on Friday, Feb. 24, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the Omak Performing Arts Center. The event includes speakers, a PowerPoint presentation and information booths, and features performances by Seattle rock band Fill the Silence, The Muddy River Band, and country/rock musician Brock Hires, who is also the emcee.

The purpose of the event is to “provide viable alternative ways to prevent individuals from texting while driving,” said Brandy Ueland-Hall, Wenatchee Valley College at Omak student and co-organizer of the event.

Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers will speak at the event, and the sheriff’s department, along with AT&T, the WVC at Omak Nursing and Criminal Justice clubs, and community groups will provide information booths that include driver safety tips and alternatives to texting while driving, cell phone safety features, signing an anti-texting form, and proper car seat installation procedures. Sarah Brown, a WVC at Omak student and co-organizer of the concert, will show a PowerPoint presentation about distracted driving.

Door prizes will be given away throughout the night, including $500 in prizes from AT&T and donated items and gift certificates from community businesses such as Rancho Chico and Derina’s Flowers.

Refreshments will be available.

This event is part of the Wenatchee Valley College at Omak Phi Theta Kappa honor society’s Honors in Action project, which involves studying the ways in which the availability of information has changed our lifestyles. Kit Arbuckle, PTK adviser, said that the chapter became interested in the anti-texting while driving concept when their research revealed that nearly 3,000 people are killed in the U.S. each year by distracted driving.

“We felt that this concert might actually save a life right here in our own community,” Arbuckle said.

The concert is free and open to the public.

Event sponsors are WVC at Omak Phi Theta Kappa, the Associated Students of WVC at Omak and AT&T.