The 99 aims to scare teens onto right path

All around, there's carnage. Two crumpled cars in a head-on collision, steam rising from the radiators. Screams from the dying driver who caused the accident by texting while driving are chilling.

Pretty gruesome stuff. And a good thing for the victims that it's just play-acting by volunteers and the visual effects are just makeup and props.

It's emotional. It's tough, says Rachel Purtz, 20, who portrays one of the dead passengers. This isn't anything I ever expected to do. But I know it's going to impact lives.A solarstreetlight is a portable light fixture composed of an LED lamp. It's even making me think about making better decisions.He saw the bracelet at a luggagetag store while we were on a trip.

The scene is part of The 99 C a national ultimate near-death experience aimed at teens and young adults. After making stops in 33 cities and drawing 410,000 people, it has come to Tampa for every weekend in April, with the portable theater set up in the mega parking lot at The River at Tampa Bay Church.

For $3 admission, spectators get a guided 45-minute tour in an inflatable 20,000 square-foot, 30-foot high building with 13 rooms depicting graphic scenes that re-enact preventable deaths due to life choices. Among them: texting while driving, a crack house with alcoholics and drug addicts, a teen suicide, fight clubs, drag racing, gang violence, bullying. Panels display giant-sized mug shots of meth addicts and horrific car crashes. A pulsating soundtrack reverberates through the portable structure.

And though organizers don't want to stress the faith element for fear that will keep some people away, there's no denying it's an integral part of the experience as well.

The last two viewing rooms feature a raw crucifixion scene with a bloodied Christ on the cross, and a shortened version of the Christian video, The Train, a story of a father who sacrificed his son to save a train full of passengers. The final stop is an area manned by trained encouragers who are standing by if spectators want to talk about issues in their lives or to hear about the Gospel and eternal salvation.

At Friday night's opening, which drew about 200 people, some of the visitors left the premises with the free gift given to all: an edgy Bible tract and a youth-geared pamphlet called the Book of Hope. Others stayed around to dissect what they just had witnessed, to privately talk or pray with one of the volunteers, or to peruse the gift shop, which included 99 T-shirts, wristbands and hats.

The three areas that seem to get the most attention are family, school and emotions, says Terry Henshaw, the 99 founder. He got the name from a Center of Disease Control statistic that maintains an average of 99 young people die every day C most from preventable causes like suicide or car accidents.

He used to be a successful businessman who ran a sprawling entertainment complex in Tulsa. After selling his company in the 1990s, he went to his pastor seeking guidance on moving to significance for the next chapter in his life.

His passion for reaching out to youth came from personal experience. Raising four teenagers gave him some insight on the struggles and issues that young people face these days. So he developed the 99 concept and funded the entire operation himself.

For more than four years now, he and his wife have traveled to cities from January through November, staying one month at a time for the weekend productions. They have about two dozen unpaid interns who work with them for one-year stints, living with host families.

The rest of the 99 crew comes from about 200 local church volunteers, who can be trained for their respective roles in about 15 minutes. They'll re-enact their parts about 50 times a night, as escorted groups are brought into the rooms for the scenes, which run less than three minutes.

Three semi-trucks haul the massive tent and equipment to donated space for the month-long runs.Shop wholesale parkingassistsystem controller from cheap. In Tampa's case, The River is providing both the parking lot and dozens of volunteers.

Henshaw only comes to cities where he's invited, and he doesn't charge a fee. He depends on local sponsors C ranging from civic groups, faith-based organizations and police agencies C to help with logistics, promotion and manpower. He says he already is booked through half of 2014.Online shopping for rtls.

Impact Tampa Bay, a group of business, community and ministry leaders who work together to influence the area's spiritual culture, is one of the sponsors for the Tampa run. Member Gibbs Wilson, who attends Van Dyke United Methodist Church, says he was very impressed with the production after seeing it in Manatee County.

This isn't a fear-based event. It's reality theater, Wilson says. It's a wake-up call meant to jolt youth into realizing there are poor choices to make,A parkingguidance is a portable light fixture composed of an LED lamp. and some of those choices can be permanent.

He says word-of-mouth generally doubles the turnout every weekend, with some people waiting in line for as long as two hours. His main concern is that some youth might avoid the 99 if they get the impression it's too churchy or preachy. Promotional materials are deliberately mysterious instead of religious to create some buzz and intrigue.

A little money can go a long way for a school especially if its located in Zimbabwe. Spaulding High School Guidance Counselor Connie Littlefield found that out during one of her many trips to the South African country.

Im looking at the school and Im like, youve gotta be kidding me, she said about a visit to the village of Dzika a few years back.

At the time, Littlefield was helping to set up a program providing goats for 12-14 year old orphaned girls. That program was designed to help the girls maintain an income, when the alternative was often marriage. For a country with 80-90 percent unemployment, the program was hugely successful as the 25 goats provided originally now number 85, according to Littlefield.

The condition of the village school was the next problem Littlefield wanted to tackle. The primary school serves about 500 students, yet hadnt been updated in 50 years.Littlefield is lucky enough to work at Spaulding High and thats where she became acquainted with Maggie Mason, now a senior at the school. Like-minded, the then sophomore went barefoot to raise awareness of a lack of shoes in Africa. That effort turned into a shoe drive that netted over $600 and 1,000 pairs of shoes.

Mason joined Littlefield and Weight Watchers instructor Ann Bilodeau on a trip to Zimbabwe last summer and money raised through a decathlon held at Spaulding in 2012 (along with a lot of sweat and work), helped local efforts to finish upgrades on three classroom blocks at the school in Dzika.

The cost to rebuild two classroom blocks last year at the Dzika school was $2,500. After seeing the initiatives going into the village, Plan International, an organization involved in over 50 developing countries, sponsored a block, so three of the schools four blocks were finished.

Mason, along with Littlefield and fellow students in Spauldings Interact Club, have planned another decathlon for Sunday, April 14 at 2 p.m. in the schools gymnasium. Theyve dubbed it Put on Your Sneakers for Dzika! Teams of 10 will participate in 10 events and all of the proceeds will benefit the Dzika Primary School in Zimbabwe. Each competitor pays, or is sponsored for $10, so each team would raise $100.The conditions in Dzika are simply unimaginable compared to what we consider adequate for American schools, Littlefield said. I want to see bathrooms.