Close to 200 students from the Comox Valley's three secondary schools worked together to create two positive video projects showing how to deal with negative feelings.

Students made a 10-minute music video, called Instructions for a Bad Day, and a longer documentary, called Conquering Silence, showing how and why the music video was made.

A large part of the message in the video is that no matter how lonely or depressed a person can feel, someone will always be there to lean on if that person reaches out to those around them, according to Vanier vice-principal Murray McRae, who spearheaded the project.

Vanier Grade 12 student Jay Luty was the main character in the music video and helped with numerous aspects of the project. He struggled with depression a couple of years ago and he was friends with one of the Comox Valley teenagers who took their own lives last year.

He said he got involved in the project because he wanted to do something positive for the community.

"I just wanted to help somebody else through making this video," said Luty. "I was just hoping to reach out, unite the community and help people understand that there's always hope."

The video features spoken word by well-known poet Shane Koyczan, who performed in the opening ceremony at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. When he heard about the project, he moved things around in his busy schedule to come to the Valley and work with the students in December.

Koyczan said working with the students was "incredible" and called the project "inspiring."

"It was inspiring to see the way a community-based project can help heal a community in terms of recovering from something so devastating," explained Koyczan.

Koyczan speaks a powerful and uplifting message throughout, with one section of the video saying "remember the times you could have pressed quit — but hit continue."

McRae said he and a handful of students came up a rough idea to make a video in mid-fall, but it grew and changed during the process. He added that he noticed a change in the atmosphere at Vanier around that time.

"I would walk the hallways and I would see so many kids that I felt were disconnected with the world around them and the school they were in," said McRae.

"There was just too much tough news coming at them, and it was wearing on them, and it just bothered me immensely to see them hurting."

Shannon Foreman, Vanier IT technology teacher, came on board, and then some students from her video and animation classes got involved. The project continued growing, with students joining in to help construct props, act as extras, and contribute to all the other jobs that go into making a music video and documentary.

Choirs from all three high schools got together to do scratch vocals, and Grade 12 Vanier student Jenna Spowart, who is a singer/songwriter, had a song featured in the documentary.

Foreman said the majority of the work was completed during six to eight days right before the Christmas break, and she was amazed at how the smoothly it went when everyone was already so busy.

"Everyone was doing testing, Christmas stuff, family, sports, music, all of that other stuff, and all of this on top of it, and I think it's just amazing how everybody came together," she explained, adding that she's very impressed with the final product.

McRae also pointed out that businesses and community members joined in to help, including local producer Corwin Fox, who worked on audio, and Home Depot, which donated materials that an employee helped students make props with.

Luty said that his desire to unite the community with the video actually happened for him personally during the process.

"Through making this video, I feel even closer to everybody else than I did before, like my old friends, the new friends I've made, and basically everyone around me," said Luty, adding that his friends who were involved feel the same way.

The newly finished video will be shown at a school assembly at Vanier on Thursday, and McRae said he hopes people who watch it will have positive reaction — like him — when they see it for the first time.

"I felt warm inside. I felt at peace. I felt like I was lucky to live where I live, and I want people to feel that way — that they look around them and say, 'You know what I'm lucky to be where I'm at, and I'm lucky to have the friends I've got,' " explained McRae.

The video and documentary will be posted at www.gpvanier.ca, www.sd71.bc.ca and www.shanekoyczan.com, among other places.

writer@comoxvalleyrecord.com