by Krissy Proctor
Copy Editor 
Couch potatoes remain seated. Channel-surfers put down your remotes. Familiar faces are now appearing on televisions across the region as students and faculty from Bryan star in local commercials for the Women’s Care Center of Rhea County.
For the past 25 years, Bryan College has been well-known for its involvement with the neighboring community. However, over the last two summers it has brought that involvement into the 21st century by donating time and effort to producing eight, one-minute commercials, a 30-minute promotional film and a 12-part web series for theEDGE, a teen risk-avoidance program established by the Care Center.
According to the program’s website, the EDGE, “initially began in 1993 to equip the youth in Rhea County with information so they would not find themselves in an unplanned pregnancy situation. It has grown into a program that not only encourages abstinence-until-marriage, but also helps youth make smart decisions in all aspects of life.”
The media project, produced by Bryan alum Taylor Hollingsworth, has used almost 30 Bryan students, alumni and faculty over the two-year period of filming.
Current students who were involved include seniors Jason Hundley, Emily Hendrix, Taylor Gentry, Justin Winters and Xavierian McCall, juniors Yuri Lopez and Nick Tuttle, sophomore Emilie Belisle and freshman Jake Ricketts, as well as faculty members Dr. Randy Hollingsworth, Dr. Ken Turner with wife Reagan, Chris Clark and Paulakay Ricketts.
According to Connie Arnold, education director for theEDGE, students and faculty were mostly contacted by word of mouth, with emphasis on prior familiarity with staff members, though auditions were held last summer for the film “The Ripple.”
“I don’t think hardly anyone turned us down,” Arnold said with a laugh. “The staff wrote all the commercials and it was about who they knew who fit the part.”
Five main stations are currently showing the commercials through Charter cable: ABC, TBS, MTV, VH1 and USA. The Care Center has also purchased audio spots on Christian radio station J103 and Rhea County Radio that will play throughout the fall.
Winters, a theater major who starred with Turner in the spot titled “Parents”, commented that while the commercials were good experience for his future, he also enjoyed participating for larger reasons.
“I did it because I love to do it…of course, it was motivated by vocation, but with that I don’t want to lose the important things. If there’s meaning, if something carries weight or is significant, that’s the thing I want to do. It makes my day,” he said.
“Well, we had some misgivings,” Turner said. “Neither my wife or I looks old enough to be the parents of a teenager. Even if I had a kid at 18…but they said not to worry about it.”
Turner also said he found the message of the commercial a worthwhile lesson for modern society.
“The punch-line was…if you don’t listen to your kids, don’t be surprised if they return the favor. I don’t worry about that with my kids so much, but I come from a background where I was neglected. Now that I’m a father, I find myself to be very critical of today’s parents, so this a message I think a lot of people should hear.”
The Care Center has no future plans to continue producing videos, but will continue releasing installments of their web series, entitled “Boyfriends of Genius”, each month for the next year.
“And who knows?” Arnold said. “God can do amazing things. This media has related to kids on a new level, it’s bridged the gap and they need that.”
The commercials, film and first installment of “Boyfriends of Genius” can be found on the EDGE’s website. http://www.theedgeonlife.org/media
Does the narrator of the web series sound familiar? He should. It’s former Bryan history professor, Dr. Jack Traylor.