Big Country video winners

Twenty-two videos were recently submitted by area students to Big Country Electric Cooperative’s video contest. The prompt was: “You are a candidate for an open seat on Big Country’s board of directors; in two to three minutes, tell us why you should be elected.”
Six of those 22 videos were produced by Ira ISD students.
The biggest prize was a place on the 2020 Government-in-Action Youth Tour, and other prizes were available as well. Ira ISD’s film team, including Tana Pierce, Taylor Chavez, Haylee Gruben, Haley Rios, Esmeralda Torres and Garrett Haubert, netted the school a $500 check with their set of videos.
Ira technology teacher Walt Burt said that it wasn’t just one student who qualified to win, but all the students together had their set of videos deemed above average.
Burt said that the kids wanted to show that they had learned about Big Country Electric Cooperative and how the company worked, so each student researched the company’s history and how it functions.
“They manage the co-op by electing people that are customers to oversee operation and make decisions,” Burt said. “So the project was to make a video that, if they were running for election at the co-op, how would they encourage people to vote for them?”
Burt said that each student came at the problem from a different angle.
“One came at it from, you know, ‘We’ve got a proud history, we’re going to grow into the future, our area is dynamic,’ and so on and so forth, and others said, ‘I’ve lived here my whole life; I’m in touch with the people and the land.’ So there’s all kinds of angles, if you’re running for office, that you can come from,” he said.
Burt said that there was also a learning curve in the actual making of the videos. Some students used high-tech software, and others tried to use their cell phones to film, but overall he thought the quality was quite good.
The winning videos will be shown at the co-op’s annual membership meeting in April.