The Center for Disease Control Honors MAPS: Media Arts in the Public Schools program.

Headquartered in Atlanta, GA., the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has acquired the national broadcast rights to two public service announcements (television and radio) created by Montana’s MAPS: Media Arts in the Public Schools program http://www.mediarts.org .

Produced by Darby High School’s Dallas Hartness (16) and Max Campbell (13) and Executive Produced by 2006 MAPS graduate, Luke McLean (19), the PSA’s will become part of the CDC’s Media Campaign Resource Center (MCRC). The MCRC licenses and maintains an inventory of existing tobacco control advertisements developed by a number of U.S. states, organizations, and federal agencies. With the exception of a limited number of free ads, the MCRC materials may be used only by nonprofit health-related organizations or government agencies.

In addition to the two PSA’s the students also produced the powerful documentary, “A FATAL ADDICTION”. “A FATAL ADDICTION” depicts the human consequences of smoking as seen through the eyes of terminally ill, life long users of tobacco and DVD’s of the video have been requested by health departments and schools around the country.

2007 has been a good year for MAPS.

The NASFAA (National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators) hired the MAPS Corvallis program to create and produce a national ad campaign. Starting this December, the NASFAA campaign (television and radio) will air in 38 states. The students produced two ads: one directed at the youth audience, the other to their parents and encourages high school students to go to college and offers options how to pay for it.

Previous MAPS professional assignments include ad campaigns for the Ravalli County DUI Task Force, the Marcus Daly Hospital and the Montana Student Assistance Foundation.

To date, MAPS has been funded privately by the Florence Prever Rosten Foundation via client fees, grants and private donations. However, last June, Montana’s U.S. Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester announced $6.8 million has been set aside ($100,000 for MAPS) as part of a fiscal year 2008 spending bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Bill.

“These dollars will provide a real boost to our state’s health care services and work force training programs,” Baucus said. “I was proud to work together with Jon to help secure these funds for Montana.”

Senator Jon Tester said, “I’m glad to see our hard work pay off. Working hand-in-hand with Max, I’m committed to making sure Montana gets its fair share of federal funding.”

And MAPS is expanding statewide. Via a partnership with the Montana Alliance of Boys and Girls Clubs, the first five MAPS/BGC locations will be Red Lodge, Wolf Point, Missoula, Bozeman and Kalispell. Says MAPS President, Peter Rosten, “The goal of MAPS is to educate and create quality jobs for Montana youth. Our success in realizing this goal is testimony to the talent of our young filmmakers. And assuming our first five Boys and Girls Clubs replicate the results of our public school programs we will add an additional five clubs in 2008.”

For more information about MAPS, please visit the website http://www.mediarts.org.