TAMPA, Fla. — Every young professional can use some extra help to get their foot in the door.
Summer break can wait for a team of Blake High School film students. They are getting an opportunity to help out a local non-profit organization on a mission to end drug overdoses and addiction.
"Sometimes if you want to be taken serious in film you have to make sacrifices and spend your summer making films instead of sleeping in," said Eva Erhardt.
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The Blake High junior and her friends are producing a public service announcement because one woman believed they could get it done.
"I was so honored and proud and excited when they agreed to do it," said Tracy Carathanasis, a volunteer for NOPE.
NOPE stands for Narcotics Overdose Prevention and Education. Carathanasis along with many other parents speak at schools all over the Tampa Bay area.
"We had talked about re-doing the middle school video," said Carathanasis. "When I saw them, I thought oh my gosh they are so great. What if they could do it for us."
The nearly 10-year-old video depicting the consequences of drug overdoses the organization currently uses needed an update.
"The crisis has gone from zero to one hundred in the last couple of years so we need to approach it with a different seriousness than a couple of years ago," said Erhardt.
The drug crisis is one Tracy knows all too well after losing her own son Drew to an overdose in 2015.
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The team from Blake High is doing it all: writing scripts, filming, editing and acting.
"I mean it really means, yea, it's very emotional," said Carathanasis. "It means a lot to me that you guys are doing this."
The group of students is working very hard and are almost finished with the video.
NOPE's Hillsborough County chapter tells us it will be using the video the students produced in every single one of their presentations starting next year.
