Lyndi Kay McQueen, 20, said she learned a lot helping with a simulated car accident warning teens of the dangers of drinking and driving.

“We started in February and finished in April. I would hope that it touched people. I believe it did,” she said.

The project went beyond ordinary extracurricular activities. It was community activism seeking positive change.

McQueen, a 2005 graduate of Muskogee High School, is now majoring in communication at the University of Oklahoma.

“It gave me a kind of experience volunteering and meeting people,” she said. “Here at OU, I’m in many different committees, especially our Relay for Life. It helped me want to stay connected.”

Young people in community activism learn some important lessons, says Susan Roberts, college and career counselor at MHS.

“When they are more involved, they want to come to school,” she said. “It is going to stick with them; they’ve done the right thing, and they can pass it on to their peers.”

Madison Hayes, 17, said that when she was a freshman at Hilldale High School, she gave a speech from the viewpoint of someone killed by a drunk driver. The project by Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD).

“I said goodbye to friends and other people that I would not have been able to talk to if I had really been killed,” she said. “It was pretty emotional. You wouldn’t believe how many people came up to me afterwards and said ‘Wow!’”

Hayes, now a senior, said being active in SADD has left a permanent impression on her.

“It helped me become more open with people. I will definitely join things in college if they have a positive influence on the community.”

Another program is Students Working Against Tobacco (SWAT), operating out of the Muskogee County Health Department. One of their projects is the Reward/Reminder Program, sending kids under age 18 going into stores and to try to buy tobacco products.

No money changes hands, and an adult is always present. Young people were members of the Youth Volunteer Corps and SWAT. Merchants who refuse to sell to the youth get a thank-you card. Merchants willing to sell get a warning card.

Ahlton Harrison, 14, recently helped with the project. Despite his young age, he has learned to handle what amounts to a covert operation.

Harrison described one conversation with a store clerk at a store along Shawnee Bypass who refused to sell to him.