On Tuesday, May 17th, Cara Filler delivered a powerful and moving speech to the Juniors and Seniors of FTHS. Filler was requested by the SADD program to speak about the importance of driver safety.

The assembly started out as any other, with students pouring into the auditorium, eager to get out of class for a whole 61 minutes. What they did not know was that they were about to learn one of the most valuable lessons of their life.

Cara stands a staggering six feet tall, making a striking figure next to the administrators beside her. She started her presentation off by introducing herself and making jokes, but it was not until she asked the audience to close their eyes and imagine someone they love dearly that she captured full attention.

She proceeded to play an audio clip of a woman yelling and hyperventilating, the most striking words being, “you’re going to be fine,” and “but she’s my sister!”

Cara asked everyone to open their eyes, and absolutely no one spoke for a second. Emotion immediately began to build.

Cara informed the crowd that the audio she had just played was from a driver safety commercial aired in Canada, where she is from, in memory of her twin sister. She continued, saying that the audio was her own voice, playing what she said word-for-word after watching her sister get into a fatal car crash.

Her twin sister, Marin, was only eighteen when she died, leaving her sister and best friend behind.

What seemed to be an overall depressing assembly that at some point or another everybody was going to sob quickly became a lesson.

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Cara reminded students of the basic choices they had that could potentially save their lives or other people’s lives. From throwing a drivers keys into a toilet, to letting drool drip out of your mouth to convince an unsafe driver that you were definitely going to vomit and that they needed to pull over immediately, Cara convinced everyone that they controlled their destiny. All she wanted was to reach out to young people and hopefully impact them enough so that they would think wisely before making an unsafe decision.

“It was really moving and it made you think twice about the choices you have made and will have to make,” said junior Nicole Madonna.

Students laughed at her jokes and her banter, but by the time the students could leave, most left feeling an undeniable compassion for Cara and everything she had been through.

Students turned to their friends and hugged them, promising to help them make good decisions; others went up to hug Cara and promised to make good decisions.

Overall, everybody was touched by this presentation in one way or another. Nobody left the auditorium feeling the way they did when they walked in.

To learn more about Cara Filler and her story, visit:  www.CaraFiller.com