Wade wins Drive Smart contest

Grant Wade, a senior at Lake City High School, is the Idaho state winner of the Drive Smart: No Distractions, No Excuses teen digital short contest.

The contest challenged teens to produce a short video addressing the safety concerns about distracted driving. Each state could have two winners that receive a $100 award.

Wade said he felt there was an issue with distracted driving at his school.

“...And it’s an issue in our generation now and I thought it would be good to change somebody’s life with this video,” Wade said.

His mom found the contest on Twitter and Wade took it on. He produced the video on his own, as videography and photography are things he’s interested in outside school and sports.

“We thought this was such a great achievement to win at the state level,” said Wade’s mom, Carrie Wade.

The video is short, less than a minute, and shows how people who drive distracted can miss stop signs and the consequences of that.

The video can be found on Wade’s Youtube channel “Wallace Viral.” The video is called “Scholarship Video.”

Each winner gets to elect for recognition a mentor who helped with the contest. Wade plans to elect his photography teacher and former baseball coach Mike Criswell.

“I was pretty excited to produce something and get recognition for it,” Wade said.