Several Iowa State journalism students have created public service announcements for the Iowa State Patrol which may be aired by Iowa television stations.

The students received awards from the state patrol at a ceremony held Friday at the Wallace Building in Des Moines.

The students were told of the contest to create announcements for the patrol last semester in Journalism and Mass Communications 354, an electronic media production class.

Lt. Gary Hoskins, who is in charge of the safety education officers for the state patrol, came to the class and asked interested students to produce the public service announcement.

Six students divided into two groups. One group made a PSA encouraging seat belt use and the other group made one to discourage drunk driving.

The officers sent the video on drunk driving to the Uniform Safety Education Officer’s Workshop, a national conference, in Bloomington, Minn., this spring, and it won.

Hoskins said there were participants from 20 states and Canada who all entered the competition.

“It was a pretty good competition,” he said. “We viewed some that were professionally done.”

Hoskins said the ISU students’ announcement was chosen because of the way it was done, with no speaking parts. The PSA dealt with the loss of a mother who died as a result of a drunk driver.

“It deals with the family,” Hoskins said. “It just sends a very strong message.”

Dom Caristi, professor of the journalism class, said the students really developed the ideas and wrote the announcement after Hoskins gave them examples.

Caristi said the students didn’t receive credit or pay for working on the announcements. “They did it all as an extra thing.”

Caristi added that students didn’t receive “brownie points in the grade book” for volunteering to do them.

“It’s an honor, of course to the students, and it’s an honor, of course, to the department,” Caristi said. “We’re proud of their accomplishments.”

Kyle Longnecker, Marcus Bliss and Jason Bertsch teamed up to create the winning announcement.

Longnecker, a senior in journalism, said they all had written a public service announcement, but in the end they chose Bertsch’s idea as the best to produce.

“I think it provides good experience for me in my future professional career,” he said.

The students worked through the month of February in order to complete the project on time.

Shannon Booth, Stephanie Larsen and Stacey Baier produced an announcement that encouraged seat belt use, including child restraint.

Booth, a senior in journalism said they spent one day shooting with two troopers present.

“It was a good opportunity to work with the troopers,” Booth said. “They were really good to work with and they helped out a lot.”

Booth said the whole thing was a learning experience because in the past she has worked with TV and packages, but producing an announcement was different because every shot had to be perfect.

Hoskins said the winning public service announcement will be available to news services around the state of Iowa if they choose to play them.

He said one station in Ottumwa, Iowa, has agreed to air the PSA.