Guest Speaker Drives Home Message to Local Students on Making Good Choices

POTTER--On Wednesday, September 18, Potter-Dix High School hosted an assembly for all 7-12 grade students, and guest speaker Cara Filler addressed the students with an important message. Filler is a motivational speaker with an important message for young people. She stressed to the students the importance of the choices they make, and how youth, inexperience, and in boys, testosterone, can often lead to bad decisions that have tragic consequences. She detailed a personal experience in her life that had the students thinking deeply about how they would react in a similar circumstance, and hopefully act in a way that would prevent a tragedy like she experienced. Although she conveyed a serious message, she used humor and an animated speaking style to keep the students engaged and thinking about what she was saying.

Filler had a twin sister, Mairin, who was killed in a car crash a few days before the two were to go to college together after they were both awarded basketball scholarships. Filler makes a note during her presentation to say it was a "crash' rather than an "accident", as most people will say when a vehicle is involved in a collision.

"This was not an "accident", it was a crash. And it was a crash caused by a stupid decision made by the driver. An accident implies that something happened out of the driver's control, and what happened was not that,' said Filler.

The auditorium was silent as Filler played the audio of the scene after the crash, with her trying to comfort her sister who lay dying at the scene. The audio and video were part of a safety awareness commercial in Canada, where Filler and her sister were from, in the mid to late 1990s.

Cara Filler was in a car driving home when another vehicle, containing her twin sister and her boyfriend who was driving, sped past her in a residential area. The automobile continued to accelerate until it hit another car, containing two elderly women. The car was traveling at over 100 mph in a 30 mph zone. Cara Filler came upon the scene as police and Emergency Services personnel arrived and tried to save Filler's sister.

Unfortunately, Filler's twin sister did not survive her injuries and died at 18 years old. Filler told the students assembled to close their eyes and think about the most important person in their lives, be it a parent, sibling, or any other person. Then imagine they're gone, and will never be coming back.

"My sister was an amazing person who would have done amazing things with her life, but because of a stupid decision, she was now nothing more than a statistic," said Filler.

Filler went on to detail how the two elderly women in the car that was hit spent five months in the hospital recovering from their injuries. And most frustrating, was that due to Canada's traffic laws, the boyfriend driver eventually only paid a $150 fine and spent 15 days in jail.

"150 dollars and 15 days in county jail. That's what my sister's life was worth," she said.

Filler then spoke about how she was unable to concentrate in college and then took up public speaking to talk to student groups and others about the dangers of reckless driving and other behaviors that take the lives of young people. She noted that the number one cause of death for people under 25 in the United States was car crashes. She became a public speaker and has toured the United States and Canada, delivering her message about making better choices and understanding mortality.

"All the teachers and administrators here want to see you grow old and raise families and have fulfilling lives. You may think they're trying to ruin your good time, but they're not," she said.

She stressed that no matter what, any parent or sibling or whoever is close to you will not be mad if you call them late at night to pick them up. They would much prefer that call than a visit from the police informing them of an accident.

The students were very attentive during the presentation. Hopefully, Filler's message will stick with them, and they'll remember what to do if they're ever in a situation where they are a passenger in a car with a reckless driver. Most importantly, they'll remember the message if they are driving and start thinking it would be a good idea to see "how fast this car can go."