Me with Jake (who was unfortunately hidden in the shadows)
This was taken before the program started, and before the kids got there to walk past us. We had to sit in our cars (or VAN, in our case) and wait for an HOUR before and during the time that all of those kids had to walk past the cars. It was about 30* outside and we had to sit there in complete freeze-frame, and now I know why they call it that. You can see what I was wearing, and I had a bathingsuit and spandex on under that. I don't think I've ever been so cold in my life.
later in the scene - once the police arrive (and everyone else for that matter)
I don't have these in order of the way they happened. But here you see a police officer restraining Nathan, who played the drunk driver. On the hood of the van is Ryan, who is being handcuffed for trying to fight Nathan.
Life Care landing
This was towards the end - I had already been taken away in the ambulance, along with about 3 other people. The helicopter was an awesome touch, but, no one got to be taken out in it, which was a bummer.
Before I'm taken away in the ambulance. The girl behind me is Lisa, and she was in the other car
I'm crying, (as I was for most of the time. If I wasn't crying, I was screaming. I couldn't talk very loud for the next 2 days.) The paramedic beside me is about to give me an oxygen hose. They're preparing a strecher for Matt - the other guy in my van - who was "ejected" and was sprawled on the pavement the whole time.
Matt on a strecher and me getting oxygen
Poor Matt, he was even colder than I was, because he had to lay outside the whole time in a puddle of "blood" under his head. Plus he had a lot of it all over his legs and arms...they shredded the suit he was wearing. They put me in the ambulance first, and when they put Matt up in with me, they ran over my feet with the cart. It hurt like crazy, but we had a good laugh. Matt was shaking horribly, so I gave him my blanket.
Me finding out that Jake is "dead"
The officer there is checking Jake's pulse and had just shook his head. I'm screaming, and the fireman is trying to convince me that Jake is going to be okay. I end up trying to fight him off, and I yell at both the officer and the fireman for letting him die. - I think this is the only time in my life I'd ever get away with yelling at a cop. ;-) I saw the fireman later on when we were having lunch afterwords and he said, "Hey look, it's Screamer! nice job there!" it was funny.
I have more pictures from this, but for now this is all I'm putting up. I think it can give you a better idea of what happened. There are some parts I don't have pictures for - like when Jake's "parents" arrive on the scene and the "dad" attacks Nathan for "Killing his son".
To sum up all of this, it was the most amazing thing I've probably ever done, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I know that a lot of kids who watched this probably didn't care about it for one second - but out of 2000, I know there was at least one or 2 that were effected by it in some way - and if that's the case, we did our job.