Victoria Burnside took first place in Project Purple’s Voice of Purple video contest in January.
Cherry Hill High School West freshman Victoria Burnside has personally seen how drug addiction can impact one’s life.
Burnside’s uncle, Salvatore Marchese, died from a drug overdose in 2010. Marchese’s overdose was what implored his mother, Patty DiRenzo, to get involved.
“It’s what inspired her to work with the Camden County Addiction Awareness Task Force,” Burnside said.
Burnside is also doing her part to try to break the stigma about drug addiction. She recently took first place in the first-ever The Herren Project Project Purple’s Voice of Purple video contest.
Project Purple is one of a number of initiatives undertaken by The Herren Project, a nonprofit organization founded by former pro basketball player Chris Herren, a former addict who now assists others who are struggling with drug addiction. Herren travels to schools across the country to speak with students about the dangers of substance abuse.
“The main goal (of Project Purple) is to break the stigma of addiction by working with different schools in the community,” Burnside said.
Burnside has done her part in helping to spread Project Purple’s message. As a peer leader as Carusi Middle School last year, she gave presentations to the younger students about the initiative. At Cherry Hill West, Burnside continues to be a leader as a member of student government.
In early January, DiRenzo informed Burnside about Project Purple’s video contest. Though Burnside would only have two weeks to complete a video, she decided to enter.
“My cousin is in film school in Chicago, he helped me edit the whole thing,” she said. “My friends were very supportive, they helped me film. And my principal was 100 percent supportive of it and he was excited to get involved.”
Burnside spoke to Cherry Hill West Principal Kwame Morton and her health teacher, Christina Wilson, about the idea of featuring numerous school and community members in the video.
“(Morton) was really proud that I was doing this,” Burnside said. “He was really, really excited about West getting involved.”
Burnside’s four-minute video features Morton, Wilson and Carusi Middle School Principal John Cafagna speaking about how Cherry Hill West is doing its part in raising awareness about substance abuse. In the second half of the video, numerous school and community members state they are going purple. Burnside even got a former contestant on the CBS TV show “Big Brother,” Kevin Schlehuber, to get involved.
“I emailed a few of them from the show,” Burnside said. “Some of them are just getting back to me now and unfortunately the video has passed. But he was the quickest to get back to me and he was so excited to be in it.”
Burnside was announced as the winner of the contest during the week of Jan. 22. She received an Apple Watch for winning and also got to have a FaceTime meeting with Herren. Speaking with Herren was a highlight for Burnside and she is hoping he will speak at Cherry Hill West some time in the future.
Moving forward, Burnside is hoping to get Cherry Hill West even more involved with the Project Purple initiative. She hopes to get her school registered with the initiative in the near future and have Project Purple posters and T-shirts distributed in the community.
To watch Burnside’s winning video, visit http://thpprojectpurple.org/2018-voices-of-purple-contest-winners.
